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I'm trying to develop a very simple application to launch a PDF from a CD (the app will autorun from the same CD).

I just downloaded VS2012 and so far I only manage to build and generate an installer for my app, but I don't know how to generate a single exe file which doesn't need to be installed.

Thank you

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Sorry, I see I can find it under debug directory when compiling, so I guess just compiling without building or publishing is right –  K. Weber Jan 23 '13 at 12:58

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up vote 4 down vote accepted

You could use something like ILMerge.

This tool from Microsoft enables you to "link" all DLLs and your executable together into one executable file.

There are also alternatives to ILMerge that work similar to ILMerge.

Another way to solve this is to use the tool .NETZ.

If your requirement is to start from a CD you might want to use another technology than .NET since running a .NET application requires the .NET Framework to be present on the client's computer, which might not always be the case.

I would create a native, non-managed application e.g. in Delphi or C++.

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ILMerge doesn't seem to support WPF. Is this the case? Any alternatives? –  Prat Sep 13 '13 at 10:17

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