Install ClickOnce without running

Question

When you install a ClickOnce application, the program runs after the install. Is it possible to install without running?

I know I can use a setup and deploy

Answer 1

I guess you could fake it. Introduce an "IsInstalled" boolean property, defaulted to false. Then in Program.cs, change your Main() method to look like this:

[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
    Application.EnableVisualStyles();
    Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);

    if (!Properties.Settings.Default.IsInstalled)
    {
        Properties.Settings.Default.IsInstalled = true;
        Properties.Settings.Default.Save();

        MessageBox.Show("Install Complete");
        return;
    }

    Application.Run(new Form1());
}

So now when the app is first installed, it checks that property and simply displays a message to the user and then quits.

If you wanted to get tricky then you could look at parsing the Activation URI for the deployment and have a URI parameter which specifies whether the program should run when it's first installed or just close silently.

Answer 2

You can do this by editing the application manifest in Mage. There is a checkbox to stop the application running after installation.

If you are not comfortable editing a manifest manually or with Mage then you can use the built-in deployment class to check whether this is the first time the application has run.

using System.Deployment.Application

[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
    Application.EnableVisualStyles();
    Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);

    if (ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment.IsFirstRun)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Install Complete");
        return;
    }

    Application.Run(new Form1());
}

Answer 3

After trying all the suggested solutions and still running into the same problems, I fiddled with this for a while and combined several solutions to one that actually works.

The problem with just setting an "isInstalled" property is the value is retained after upgrades, so every time you install the new version, it runs the app again. But using an application manifest file and Mage is just too much work and too complicated just to solve this little problem.

So what I did was acquire the current build # of the running version of the app, save that to a property, then check the property against the running version each time. This works because each publish increments the version #.

1) Change your Assembly version to use wildcards in AssemblyInfo.cs:

[assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.*")]

2) If that throws a "Deterministic" error on Build, open your .csproj file and set Deterministic to false in the PropertyGroup section

<Deterministic>false</Deterministic>

3) Add this fool-proof function to acquire the running assembly version:

private Version GetRunningVersion()
{
    try
    {
        return System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment.CurrentVersion;
    }
    catch
    {
        return System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version;
    }
}

4) In your project's properties, open the Settings tab, and add a setting named lastVersion (String, User). Leave the Value empty.

5) Add this property to use to determine whether this is the first time the application is running after installation.

private bool isFirstRun
{
    get { return Properties.Settings.Default.lastVersion != GetRunningVersion().ToString(); }
}

6) Then in your code, add this after you check for isFirstRun:

if (isFirstRun)
{
    Properties.Settings.Default.lastVersion = GetRunningVersion().ToString();
    Properties.Settings.Default.Save();
}

Answer 4

To disable the automatic start after install, you simply disable the URL activation as discussed in the MSDN article How to: Disable URL Activation of ClickOnce Applications (using the tool MageUI.exe).

To disable URL activation for your application

• Select the Deployment Options tab.

• Clear the Automatically run application after installing check box.

• Save and sign the manifest.