Deploying Applications and Components

Deployment is the process by which you distribute a finished application or component to be installed on other computers. In Visual Studio, you can deploy applications or components by using either ClickOnce deployment or Windows Installer deployment technology. For a discussion of the options available for deployment, see Choosing a Deployment Strategy.

The following topics will help you learn more about deployment:

In This Section

Topic	Description
Choosing a Deployment Strategy	Compares the Visual Studio deployment technologies: ClickOnce and Windows Installer.
ClickOnce Security and Deployment	Describes ClickOnce deployment, which you can use to publish Windows-based applications to a web server or a network file share.
Windows Installer Deployment	Describes the traditional Windows Installer deployment technology, in which you create and distribute installer packages to users, and the users run a Setup file to install the application.
Application Deployment Prerequisites	Describes the bootstrapper, which is a generic installer that you can configure to install prerequisite components.

Related Sections

Topic	Description
Managing Solutions, Projects, and Files	Gives information about working with projects and solutions, including deployment projects.
.NET Framework Portal	Explains the steps involved in developing an application.