Necessary Software to Execute Program

[cpp300XPBoost]

I wrote a program for another department I work with at my company. I would like to just give them the code, so they can use it. But does the person who receives it need a compiler like Visual Studio to run it or does CPP create a file that can be dropped on any Windows OS and it just knows how to compile it?

I'm sure people out there create applications for sale using cpp, so do they all require their customers to install VS?

[Moschops]

If you have run the program on your computer, there is a .exe file being executed, because that's how it works.

Find that .exe file, give it to them. If it's a simple program that doesn't use any special libraries you have on your machine, and they're using more or less the same operating system as you, it should work.

Typically, the exe file is placed in "<project_directory>/bin/Release" and/or "<project_directory>/bin/Debug"

You don't give them the code. You don't give them anything to compile. YOU did the compiling already. You just have to give them the executable file that was created by the compiler.

[cpp300XPBoost]

Thanks! That's awesome to know. I created a GUI in QT so that they don't have to see the CMD Prompt and be intimidated. Do you know if GUIs work the same way?

[Moschops]

The short answer is yes. Everything works the same way.

The longer answer is that if your program uses libraries that don't exist on the target system, you'll have to also provide those libraries.

[MikeyBoy]

If you're using QT, there will almost certainly be QT DLLs that the user will need to have on their system, to run the executable.