I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this but I cant find anywhere more suitable. In Visual Studio 2005 is there any way to actually make just a standalone exe file, like in visual studio 6.0 where you just go to Build or Make EXE or something similar? All I can find is the publishing section which creates a setup.exe which then "installs" the program and checks for updates. I just want to make one exe file that can be run from any PC anywhere and in visual studio 6.0 this was no problem at all yet I have spent hours searching and am still unable to do this in VS 2005. Thanks

This question seems more about creating c# projects in visual studio 2005 rather than an msbuild specific question. The forum link below (c# forum for visual studio) may be able to provide you more specific assistance about creating and running a standalone exe in visual studio 2005.

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=31&SiteID=1

If this is a managed application, You can right click on the project and go to properties. In theapplication properties there is an output type. You can choose Windows Application or Console Application which will build the project as an exe. There is also a class library option which will build the project as a dll.

I have done that and it still creates a setup.exe that says checking for updates and all that. I just want one exethat runs the program I have coded, why isnt it really simple like in previous versions...

This question seems more about creating c# projects in visual studio 2005 rather than an msbuild specific question. The forum link below (c# forum for visual studio) may be able to provide you more specific assistance about creating and running a standalone exe in visual studio 2005.

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=31&SiteID=1