What files are mandatory in release windows form?

Question

I have files in ...bin/release where is my windows form application, I have used EEPlus library as well. What the files do I need to send to client to have application work correctly?

My files:
name.exe         
name.exe.config     
name.pdb
name.vshost.exe
name.vshost.exe.config
name.vshost.exe.manifest
EEPlus.dll
EEPlus.xml

I know that first two are mandatory, but what about all rest? thanks in advance

Answer 1

name.exe                       //necessary, it is your main executable  
name.exe.config                //necessary, it is your application config file
name.pdb                       //not necessary, it contains code and debug symbols configuration of your assembly, but let it be there, it is useful when users encounter a bug or crash
name.vshost.exe                //not necessary, it is the hosting process of visual studio for debugging purposes
name.vshost.exe.config         //not necessary, config file of name.vshost.exe
name.vshost.exe.manifest       //not necessary, manifest of name.vshost.exe
EEPlus.dll                     //necessary, it is one of your application dependencies
EEPlus.xml                     //not necessary, contains some information for EEPlus.dll

reference for xml, reference for vshost, reference for pdb

Answer 2

All except *.pdb and *vshost*.

Answer 3

Really you should look at the REFERENCES of your project.
Generically all the assemblies that don't make part of the NET Framework need to be redistributed.
In this case, it seems that you need to distribute EEPlus.dll only.
The other files are there just as a byproduct of the compilation.

Of course, you should also consider that a thirdy party library could need other files, but this should be explained in their documentation under the redistrubute page.

You could try this:

Delete all files except the name.exe, name.exe.config and EEPlus.DLL, then run your app outside VS directly in the BIN\RELEASE folder. However I recommend to have a clean virtual machine where you could test your app and be sure to not forget anything.

Answer 4

Always

1. name.exe
2. name.exe.config
3. Dependency dlls
4. Interop dlls

First we check this mandatory files before giving to client, because at client, when running application that will be crashed without displaying any errors...