.NET Core 31 - Single EXE - The application to execute does not exist

Question

Converted an old .NET Framework project to .NET Core 3.1 yesterday. The application runs fine on my own machine and debugs correctly.

I have put both the following into my .vbproj/.csproj

<PublishSingleFile>true</PublishSingleFile>
<RuntimeIdentifier>win81-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>

However when I move the .EXE to a remote machine and attempt to run said EXE on that remote machine I get told that the DLL (for the project in question) does not exists.

I moved the .dll to the same directory that the exe is in (not ideal) and get the following error instead

A fatal error was encountered. The library 'hostpolicy.dll' required to execute the application was not found in 'C:\Program Files\dotnet'.

I used to use Costura.Fody to create a single file exe without any issues in .NET Framework, I was under the impression the above would do the same for the .NET Core packages.

Can someone point me in the right direction please.

Does this answer your question? [Compile a .NET Core application as an EXE file using Visual Studio 2017](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44038847/compile-a-net-core-application-as-an-exe-file-using-visual-studio-2017) — Code-Apprentice, Nov 24 '21 at 18:02

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 10 '21 at 09:54

6

For anyone else that may find this question and find it useless.

I was 'Building' the project instead of 'Publishing' the project, this in-turn wasn't creating the self-contained exe properly.

Don't be a donut like me.

answered Mar 10 '21 at 09:54

Lynchie

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 24 '21 at 17:58

0

In Visual Studio 2019, go to Build > Publish MyApp. This will open a tab in the editor area. Click on Show all settings to open the Profile settings dialog. Then click on File publish options and check Produce single file.

answered Nov 24 '21 at 17:58

Code-Apprentice

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.NET Core 31 - Single EXE - The application to execute does not exist

2 Answers2