Can VS2008 publish such that .NET 3 is not required for installs?

[ProtocolPirate]

I upgraded a VB project from VS2005, but now installations require .NET 3 on the target machine, even though my project only asks for .NET 2. Dot NET 3 takes 3 times longer than .NET 2 to load and install, so I would rather stick with 2 at this time. My project only lists .NET 2 as a dependency, not .NET 3. When compiled under VS2005, installs do not require .NET 3. Yet when I update the project to VS2008 and publish it, the published installation fails to install on any machine that does not have .NET 3 installed.

Can VS2008 Express publish such that .NET 3 is not required for installs?

 

[RiverGuy]

I haven't used 2008 much, so here's a guess. Under your publish tab, have you made sure that .Net 3.0 is deselected when clicking your prerequisites button?

 

[PRPhx]

Yes, you can aim your project at a different framework. To do so, RIGHT click on the project name in the solution explorer. Then click Properties. Click Publish. Under Install Mode and Settings, click the SECOND button to make the app available offline. Then click prerequistes. Now choose your framework.

OR you can attempt the following:

If you can not find a way to compile your project to an earlier version of the framework (you SHOULD be able to), you can compile your project from the command line.

Check in \WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework. You should see a number of folders beginning with V. These are the frameworks you have installed. Navigate the framework folder you wish to compile you project in. In this folder (i.e. v2.0.50727) you should find a program called vbc.exe. This is the command line compiler. type vbc |more for a list of options. This will let you compile your project in the framework you need.