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I have written a simple c# app to let my son do some stats on dice rolling for a game he is developing. I created a simple interface using Visual Studio 2017 and Universal Windows. After loads of silly errors - and lots of less silly ones, I finally have an app that runs as I want it to in debug mode. I now want to publish it so he can copy the files and run it on his Windows computer. Now I am sure this is really easy - but after 2 days of google searching, MSDN searching and searching this forum I am no nearer knowing what I need to do.

I have changed the solution configuration to Release and the platform to x86. I have run Build and Deploy solution form the build menu and have loads of files in my bin/x86/release file partial list from windows explorer. But none of the exe files seem to do anything (the app5.exe waits a while sometimes, but no sign of the app anywhere). I am obviously missing some critical preparatory step, but I can't find out what it is. Some of the MSDN notes talk about Publish (this is greyed out or not present, but Deploy appears). Can anyone please point me to some idiot proof documentation to help me work out what I should be doing. I am new to Visual Studio, new to C# and new to windows app development - so my app has been pulled together from web research and using common sense :) I have assumed that what I am trying to do is pretty easy - but I am not yet convinced.

Zhendong Wu - MSFT
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Angus Weir
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  • Are you having external dependencies (third party libs that might be only installed on your PC/different versions of libraries)? It is hard to tell by your description only. – bash.d Jan 28 '18 at 17:03
  • Thanks for response. I (do not think ) am not using any external dependencies, but the problem is that I can't understand how to do the deployment as a stand-alone app even on my computer. It runs in debug on VS2017 and then I do a build, but none of the files seem to run at all. – Angus Weir Jan 28 '18 at 17:48
  • why do you have all the framework assemblies set to copy...you dont need those...the user would need .net framework installation anyway...thats just a bunch of times that you dont need to copy – Ctznkane525 Jan 28 '18 at 20:04
  • I don't understand what I have set to copy. I'm beginning to realise how little I do understand. I am just guessing at what I need to do to build an executable file which I can copy to another computer to run. At this stage my guess is run the build and deploy stages and see if anything will run - BTW it doesn't. I would love to see a simple document which describes the stages I need to go through - but the ones I can find on MSDN do not tie in with I can see in VS2017. – Angus Weir Jan 28 '18 at 20:52
  • As I think about how little I understand of the deployment process - and how little I learn from my google searches, I wonder if all I need is someone to tell me what I should be searching for. I've tried searching for publish and deploy and run on another PC all coupled with c# and visualstudio - but nothing seems to tell me what I need to do. – Angus Weir Jan 28 '18 at 21:20

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To sell your Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app or distribute it to other users, you need to package it. If you don't want to distribute your app through Microsoft Store, you can sideload the app package directly to a device. Since you used the VS, you can follow this document to package a UWP app with Visual Studio: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/packaging/packaging-uwp-apps#sideload-your-app-package.

After you package your app, if you want to sideload your app, you can follow the How do I sideload an app on desktop part in the following document:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/application-management/sideload-apps-in-windows-10#how-do-i-sideload-an-app-on-desktop

More details, you can get from this topic:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/packaging/

Breeze Liu - MSFT
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