.Net Win forms exe on a server? 1

[BillGeake]

Is it possible for a .Net exe to be kept on a server and run via a desktop shortcut?

Need some high level advice on architecture and installation.

Our environment is simple – about 200 users on 1 LAN. We have in house fat client applications written in VB6. These are installed in our own cunning way. A big installation package contains all the dlls we need for all applications. This is installed on every user desktop, into a sub folder of C:\Program Files\Common Files. The executables and ini files sit on servers, and the users are given shortcuts to the executables.

This works really well for us in almost all circumstances, allowing us to install apps without a desk visit, and to make app updates just by changing the executable on the server. Server permissions allow us to restrict application usage to the right people.

How do we cope in .Net? We'll be using Win forms with VB or C#. As far as I know, fat client .Net apps expect to see the .Net framework in C:\WINNT\Microsoft.Net\… but individual application components should go in the same folder as the executable, and these components need to be on the client.

Hence, how can we have executables on a server?

All advice welcome.

Bill.

 

[sunaj]

Hi,

If you set the security permission to allow execution of .exe from a shared drive (use the framework configuration tool) you can still place your .exe on a shared drive and run it from there (it will still run locally even though the exe is placed on a server).
If you use COM dlls you have to have them registered locally - and the registry will define were they are located. If you use .net dlls you can place them together with the .exe on the shared drive, but you can also put them elsewere (in the GAC or use a .config file to define where they are located).

Hope that helps

Sunaj
'The gap between theory and practice is not as wide in theory as it is in practice'

 

[BillGeake]

That's excellent - will try this now. Thank you very much.

 

[stnkyminky]

You might want to look into no touch deployment. Just copy your app to into a shared folder in c:\inetpub\

http://wwwroot

of a webserver. Then all the client needs to do is type the URL and the app will be downloaded and run on their machine. ex.

http://webserver/app/app.exe

The solution you're asking about will work but when it's time to update the app, you will need to make sure no one is running the app. If they are using it you will get a "Error deleting file or folder" message.



Scott
Programmer Analyst
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