Well, seeing as I can't find a "Compile" button anywhere, and have to go to "Publish", which creates an install file and a bunch of seemingly useless application files, I have 2 questions.

1. Is there any way I can just compile to an EXE rather than being forced to do a full "Publish" ?

2. If I can't do my first question, when publishing, can I uncheck ".NET Framework" in the prerequisites list if I'm not using any network functions?

Are you using Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition or Visual Studio 2008? Also, pressing F5 will run your current application without having you to publish it. I'm guessing you're not using the Express Edition, since it has the green "play" button that lets you do that, whereas in Visual Studio you need to get it onto the toolbar through your options.

I have Express Edition. I don't want to just run it. I want to save the EXE without having to create setup files and whatnot, so others can just click on the EXE and it will run.

When you save the project in a designated folder, the bin folder shall have the EXE that you can run. And the others will be able to run the EXE only if they have the .NET framework I'm guessing.

Posted By Avtar on 21st Mar 08 at 11:16pm

 

When you save the project in a designated folder, the bin folder shall have the EXE that you can run. And the others will be able to run the EXE only if they have the .NET framework I'm guessing.

I had seen that, but when I tried to send just that to people, half of them received a runtime error.

As for my second question, is there any way to not require .NET framework?

I know of a way to do it in Visual C#, but that pretty much requires you to build a semi-installer really.

Posted By Avtar on 22nd Mar 08 at 5:02am

 

I know of a way to do it in Visual C#, but that pretty much requires you to build a semi-installer really.

I still don't understand why a Password Generator requires .NET when if I entered the same code into VB6 it would run fine.

Speaking of which, since neither of these seem fully solvable, do you know of anywhere that I could get a legal free copy of VB6?

If VB.NET would run just as simply as VB6, the entire point of the .NET framework would be lost. The compatibility of C#, ASP.NET and everything in the application will exist only with the .NET framework being intact. So yeah, that's why it won't run so easily.

And yeah, while saving the project/file there should be an option for you to make it non .NET compatible or something of the sort.

I've tried unchecking the .NET framework prerequisite, but I'm told by everyone that it's still required upon running the EXE.

Test it out, if you've told it to not be a .NET application, it should sure as hell not be one!

Posted By Avtar on 22nd Mar 08 at 6:24pm

 

Test it out, if you've told it to not be a .NET application, it should sure as hell not be one!

I've tested it on 4 computers that do not have .NET framwork; it still says that it's required.

Who created and maintains the .NET framework? Microsoft. There's your problem.

Really, the only languages (on Windows) that you're not going to have to install software for are C++, Java, and maybe C.

If you're on a Mac or some Linux distros, you're looking at Java, C++, C, Perl, Ruby, Python, and a host of other languages pre-installed. Windows just makes things difficult

Mith is correct, i'v used Macs before at school.

Windows indeed makes it difficult, which would explain why I havn't learned these languages yet.