How to create a "Release" for an installation package in VC++ Express 1

[qjade]

Hello friends,
It has been years since I fiddled with C. I was hoping someone with a little experience with Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition to give me a hand with compiling my source codes.
I have a set of source codes from a program's creator, written in C. I can build a project from those sources and get an *.exe generated without errors in the "Debug" folder. However, when I try to create an installation package (*.msi), the executable in the "Debug" folder does not work on another machine.
Can someone suggest to me how to resolve this problem. I was told that I may need to create a release version of my executable but I am not sure how that is done. I wish to have my executable and a few additional icon and *.bmp files put together in an installation package (such as *.msi) to be release.
Thanks for you help and input in advance.

 

[cpjust]

I think that was one of the toolbars that isn't there by default and it a pain in the ass to add (until you learn how).
Right-click on your Toolbar and click "Customize".
Select the "Build" category on the left, then scroll down to "Solution Configurations".
Click and drag "Solution Configurations" onto your toolbar.

You can now switch between Debug and Release mode when you compile.

There's a bunch of other toolbar items in the Customize dialog that I had to drag onto my toolbar also, so you might want to look around for some other useful toolbar items...

 

[qjade]

Thanks for your respond cpjust!

I was able to create a "Release" executable. However, I still can not move that *.exe file to another PC to run (both have Win XP & SP2). That is a huge problem for me right now as I need to distribute this to many other PC's. Is there anything else special about the environment, dll, or as someone suggested .Net 2.0 that I should know about?
Thanks again and hope to hear more good news from you - or anyone for that matter.

 

[cpjust]

What happens when you run it on another computer? Does it tell you it's missing a DLL or something?

 

[qjade]

It says something along the line of "The application settings are not correct. Reinstalling the program may fix this problem.

 

[cpjust]

That's not a very descriptive error...
I'm assuming when you install and run the program on your development machine it works fine, right?
Do you get that error during the install or when you actually run the program?
Is it a Win32 program or a Console App?
What OS is you Development machine and test machine?
Are you logged in as Administrator when installing?

Maybe your install program isn't registering some DLLs that need to get registered?