Install prerequisites with a ClickOnce application
All ClickOnce applications require that the correct version of the .NET Framework is installed on a computer before they can be run; many applications have other prerequisites as well. When publishing a ClickOnce application, you can choose a set of prerequisite components to be packaged along with your application. At installation time, a check will be performed for each prerequisite to determine if it already exists; if not it will be installed prior to installing the ClickOnce application.
Instead of packaging and publishing prerequisites, you can also specify a download location for the components. For example, rather than including prerequisites with every application that you publish, you might use a centralized file share or Web location that contains the installers for all of your prerequisites—at install time, the components will be downloaded and installed from that location.
Important
You should add prerequisite installer packages to your development computer before you publish your first ClickOnce application. For more information, see How to: Include Prerequisites with a ClickOnce Application.
Prerequisites are managed in the Prerequisites dialog box, accessible from the Publish pane of the Project Designer.
Note
In addition to the predetermined list of prerequisites, you can add your own components to the list. For more information, see Creating bootstrapper packages.
To specify prerequisites to install with a ClickOnce application
With a project selected in Solution Explorer, on the Project menu click Properties.
Note
In ClickOnce for .NET Core 3.1 and .NET 5 or later, you set deployment properties using the Publish tool instead of the Publish wizard and the Publish page of the Project Designer. For more information, see Deploy a .NET Windows application using ClickOnce and ClickOnce for .NET.
Select the Publish pane.
Click the Prerequisites button to open the Prerequisites dialog box.
In the Prerequisites dialog box, make sure that the Create setup program to install prerequisite components check box is selected.
In the Prerequisites list, check the components that you wish to install, and then click OK.
The selected components will be packaged and published along with your application.
To specify a different download location for prerequisites
With a project selected in Solution Explorer, on the Project menu click Properties.
Select the Publish pane.
Click the Prerequisites button to open the Prerequisites dialog box.
In the Prerequisites dialog box, make sure that the Create setup program to install prerequisite components check box is selected.
In the Specify the install location for prerequisites section, select Download prerequisites from the following location.
Select a location from the drop-down list, or enter a URL, file path, or FTP location, and then click OK.
Note
You must make sure that installers for the specified components exist at the specified location.