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Okay, so I've installed ASP.NET MVC 4 locally via the Microsoft Web Platform Installer 4.0. It has some nice things we as developers need. I'm trying to install it now on our Dev server (Windows 2003 Server machine); however, it wants to download a whole metric ton of other things well. I'm trying to find a minimal installation that will just put the MVC 4 files in the GAC. I don't need Sql Server express on my Dev server (Sql Server 2005 is already there). I don't need Visual Web Developer 2010 Express either as I'm not developing on the server; it's merely the first step of testing on a server and off of my local box.

Details:

Download Option as listed in the Microsoft Web Platform Installer 4.0: ASP.NET MVC 4 Tools Update with Language Packs (August 2012).

The full list of items to be installed are:

  • Visual Studio 2010 SP1 Core
  • Visual Web Developer 2010 Express
  • Sql Server Express 2008 R2
  • Windows Installer 4.5
  • Visual Studio 2010 SP1 KB983509
  • ASP.NET MVC 4 Tools Update Language Packs Installer
  • ASP.NET MVC 4 Installer (VS 2010)-Default Locale

All said, that amounts to an astonishing 710.02 MB download alone. I just need ASP.NET MVC 4 as a framework...just the libraries. Is this the only way to install it? The ASP.NET MVC 3 install was lengthy but certainly not quite so scattered.

Thoughts?

jason
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  • Accepted answer to this question is no longer correct, answer with link to standalone installation should be accepted. – nikib3ro Jan 18 '15 at 08:40

3 Answers3

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ASP.NET MVC 4 standalone on Microsoft download page

Peter Kiss
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Unlike MVC3, MVC4 doesn't have a stand-alone installer, and it's not deployed to the GAC anymore. It's bin-deployed with the app.

Part of this is because MVC4 is now distributed via NuGet packages, and broken up into various components to allow people to choose only what they want.

I'm sure you could deploy it the GAC yourself, but why bother?

Erik Funkenbusch
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  • I wasn't aware of this. I don't have anything against a bin deploy. I just want to make sure I have my ducks in a row. BTW, this is for the .Net 4.0 framework, not the .Net 4.5 Framework. Does that change anything? – jason Oct 03 '12 at 17:34
  • @Jason - No. Either way, it's the same. The MVC4 Nuget package most likely contains assemblies for both 4 and 4.5. In fact, this may be the real reason why MVC4 is bin-deployed, so that 4 and 4.5 can co-exist – Erik Funkenbusch Oct 03 '12 at 17:36
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    I found that if I right click on my Project --> Add Deployable Dependencies, it creates a _bin_deployableAssemblies folder. This works, but its a mess. My folder has about 14 assemblies (these are just the ones required for MVC 4). It just looks real sloppy. Anyone have any thoughts on this? – jason Oct 03 '12 at 20:30
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    It looks real sloppy? Seriously? It's your deployed site. Nobody is looking at it, and how do you think the GAC works? It's hundreds of assemblies all one place. – Erik Funkenbusch Oct 03 '12 at 20:37
  • Okay sloppy was the wrong word. Scary is more the word I was thinking. This is primarily out of ignorance, I fully confess. So, to rehash, is this tied to a design goal of ASP.NET MVC 4 - to make projects more configurable and less reliant on a server configuration itself? I'm just trying to get a grasp on how to decently explain to my boss how this works and why it works this way as I'm recommending a move to ASP.NET MVC 4 and I know a folder with 14+ dll's in a web application will terrify him, be it justified or not. – jason Oct 03 '12 at 21:13
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    "Why bother?"? Are you serious? If you've got 50 apps, that's 50 times the MVC 4 dlls you're committing to source control and publishing. That's why bother. – Roatin Marth Mar 21 '13 at 14:40
  • I up-voted both this and the answer with the stand-alone installer. The stand-alone installer was what I was looking for, but it's nice to understand the logic (bin deploy) behind all of the nuget "cruft" that MVC 4 dumps into a new application project – Dana Cartwright Apr 02 '13 at 14:23
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    @RoatinMarth - Why in the world would you be committing any DLL's to source control? That's contrary to every source control best practice. Publishing is typically done via MSBUILD or the Publish command in VS. If you're using source control to publish, you're doing it wrong. – Erik Funkenbusch Apr 02 '13 at 14:49
  • @MystereMan: you're right. You can see my thought process: 1) My project references standalone MVC4 dlls on disk added to my solution when I create an MVC4 app 2) My build machine builds from checked out source control (no MVC4 dlls committed) and *never got an MVC 4 standalone install* run . I naturally expected /bin to be missing these dlls. But that did not happen, the dlls were there just fine. And I can't explain why. So yeah, you're right. – Roatin Marth Apr 02 '13 at 15:35
  • @RoatinMarth - If you have NuGet configured in "Package Restore Mode" then when you build it downloads the dll's from NuGet automatically. – Erik Funkenbusch Apr 02 '13 at 16:25
  • "Unlike MVC3, MVC4 doesn't have a stand-alone installer..." - this is incorrect. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30683 While I like Nuget for development, when you need to install MVC 4 on a web server, Nuget isn't an always an option and it definitely wasn't and option for me. – akousmata Jun 02 '14 at 13:55
  • @akousmata - That installer is for Visual Studio, not for redistribution (the purpose of this question). You still need the installer to install the templates and other tooling. MVC4 is bin-deployed rather than installed with an installer on the web server like MVC3 was. (although yes, you could also bin-deploy MVC3, it wasn't the default though) – Erik Funkenbusch Jun 02 '14 at 14:15
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You can do a bin deploy like this:

  1. Right click your project and choose "Add Library Package Reference" - check ASP.NET MVC
  2. Install .Net Framework 4.5 on the server
  3. Publish the project on the server
  4. Set the AppPool for the website to .NET Framework 4 Integrated
Stefan P.
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