turning my program into an exe file
I am using MS Visual Studio 2010 and can't find out how to turn my program that I have successfully built and debugged into an exe file.....I want to put it on some computers that does not have Visual Studio downloaded to it. Am I overlooking something that is obvious? many thanks, John
If it was successfully built, a .exe file was created. I assume you built it in debug mode, so the .exe will be in the degug folder of your project.
Deploying it is a completely different matter. First you want to build in release mode. Then decide if you want to statically or dynamically link the libraries. What you need to do next depends on which path you chose. I do not think I ever tried deploying anything I built w/ VS, so I cannot help past there.
Deploying it is a completely different matter. First you want to build in release mode. Then decide if you want to statically or dynamically link the libraries. What you need to do next depends on which path you chose. I do not think I ever tried deploying anything I built w/ VS, so I cannot help past there.
As said, make sure you choose "release" from the drop down menu on the toolbar in the upper left. Build your project. The exe will be in a subdirectory of where your project files are in your documents folder.
Next, you need to download and install a program called "Dependency Walker". (Google it.) This program will tell you all the DLLs used by your exe. The people you give your program to will also need copies of these DLLs.
If it is in any subfolder of C:\Windows you can ignore it. Everything else, if any, place a copy of in the same folder as your exe. Double-click your exe to make sure you got it right.
Zip up the folder containing your exe and dll files and send that to your friends.
(If you want to do a nicer job of packaging your application, Google "Inno Setup".)
Hope this helps.
Next, you need to download and install a program called "Dependency Walker". (Google it.) This program will tell you all the DLLs used by your exe. The people you give your program to will also need copies of these DLLs.
If it is in any subfolder of C:\Windows you can ignore it. Everything else, if any, place a copy of in the same folder as your exe. Double-click your exe to make sure you got it right.
Zip up the folder containing your exe and dll files and send that to your friends.
(If you want to do a nicer job of packaging your application, Google "Inno Setup".)
Hope this helps.
Last edited on
Thank you to admkrk and Duoas.....for the information....I'll followup on your suggestions in the next few days....hope both of you have a good week. Thanks again, John
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