Need VB.Net Help - Trying to Publish for Older Computers

[brengine]

Anyone know a good forum to ask a VB.Net question to?

If you're interested, this is my problem...

My old computer died. It was running XP and VB.Net2005. I have a new computer (Windows 7) and I could only find VB.Net2010 available for download and install.

My application migrated to 2010 fine and works correctly. I can Build an EXE and Publish the installer. Everything works fine on my new computer, the problem is I can't get the program to install/run on older computers now. It looks like for the application to work the target computer must be running .Net Framework 4.0 (but I am still far from an advanced programmer, so I may be wrong).

I have done some research and tried including a Bootstrapper for .Net Framework 3.5 or older...but no additional files are being created for my install CD.

So my question is...Is getting the bootstrapper the key to getting this issue resolved, or do you know what else I could try?

Thank you.
brengine

 

[IRstuff]

You should post this question on Tek-Tips, which is mostly a computer site run by the same management as this one.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[brengine]

Thanks. I didn't know other site that existed.

 

[JohnWaa]

You can still get Visual Basic Express 2008 here/;

http://www.microsoft.com/express/downloads/

 

[robertib]

The way to make it compatible is relatively easy, as long as you set it up before starting to program.

1. Go into the project properties
2. Select the compile tab
3. Go into the advanced compile options
4. Change the target framework to whichever .NET version you want

(see attached image)

 

[brengine]

robertib,

Thanks! I did happen to find that but I didn't know if I was doing it right. The target computers are XP or higher, so (as I understand it) .NET 3.5 should be adequate (I think).

After doing what you suggested, I go to the Publish Tab (still under Project Properties), and then click Prerequisites. The picture attached shows my selections...look correct?

When I Publish...I am not getting additional files created in my Publish directory though...are they supposed to be there or am I looking in the wrong location?

Thanks again,
brengine

 

[IRstuff]

What additional files were you expecting?

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[robertib]

The warning icons indicate that some of code you are using comes from .NET 3.0 and .NET 3.5.

Unfortunately, only .NET 2.0 is installed as standard on XP - the end user would need to download the files from Microsoft to install them.

 

[xwb]

Basically

2005 = .net 2
2008 = .net 3 or .net 3.5
2010 = .net 4

If you use a vb.net environment for developing you need to supply the version of .net it is using (another 20Mb download even if you only use one function!!!)

Alternatively, look for VB5_CCE.zip on the net. It is about 10Mb in size. It is an older version of VB and doesn't need .net.