For the last month i had been working on a sudoku game. Was using VB 2005 express edition. After all was done, tried to pass it on to others. Then only got to know that .NET framework should be loaded on the other PCs also.

Then I read somewhere on net that if you use Visual C#, ou dont face this problem. I tried converting my project, but even in Visual C# its giving the same "Initialisation error 0xc0000315".

So wat is the solution for me. My program is only 2.5 MB. It makes no sense to attach a 20MB .NET framework file along with it (no ones's going to bother downloading my program). How can I make a stand alone program. Lastly, which is the best alternative software for me to make such stand alone programs that wont give these problens. Any help would be highly appreciated.

All .NET applications require the .NET framework to be installed irrelevant of the language. .NET is part of Windows Update so anyone who keeps their machine even remotely updated will have the software already. As far as redistribution goes you can either add the redistributable directly to your setup program (it is 23MB in size) or you can have your setup program auto-download the redistributable from MS if it is not installed. In most cases I'd recommend linking to MS. If you created a setup program through VS then in the project settings for the setup program is an option to link to MS for the .NET framework. I thought it was the default but I'm not sure. If you are using a different install program then it will undoubtedly have a similar option.

Michael Taylor - 6/12/06

If you mean the specific problem of not requiring the .NET framework to run then any non-.NET language will do including C++ shipped with VS (provided you don't compile with managed support). However even C++ (or VB6) requires that the user have the runtime library for the language installed on their machine. C++ uses MSVCRT and MSVCP among others while VB requires its own. Again the chances are good that your users already have the dependent binaries on their machines but a good installation program always verifies.

As for VB6 you can't download it as it is a commercial product. You have to purchase it from a software vendor.

Michael Taylor - 6/13/06

Sorry my last post was about a different distribution problem someone else was having. Ignore it.

As for your problem you should stick with VB or C#. Both are about the same as far as power and UI capability goes. You should use whichever version you feel comfortable with. As for distributing .NET what installer are you using to install your program?

Michael Taylor - 6/13/06

Very frankly, I am a pure beginner. I am trying and experimenting myself. I didnt understand the publish function in VB. So what I have been doing is that I have copied the .exe file from the project folder along with the other required files and zipped them together.

Would be very kind of you to guide me. Thanking you in advance. And also for the help already given.

P.s. is there any other alternative software by which I wont have to face this problem.

If you want to go the ZIP file route then you should simply mandate that your users have .NET installed already. If you want to ensure that your users have .NET then you'll need to move to a setup program. Unfortunately the Express edition of VS does not ship with the setup projects. Therefore you'll need to look for a third-party solution. I know that there is a Microsoft-sponsored free installation program at SourceForge called WiX. I haven't used it but it seems to be rather popular and should support the necessary logic to detect and auto-download .NET as needed. You should go to www.sourceforge.net to learn more about the project. Of course there are commercial products available as well but they are not cheap. I vaguely remember a free edition of some installation program being available but it was really restrictive (like no GAC support) so you could try Goggling for some.

Michael Taylor - 6/13/06

Another option to distribute your application with .NET Fx is to use the Setup Bootstrapper.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bf253cfd-1efc-4fc5-ba7e-6a6f21403495&DisplayLang=en