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ClickOnce Deployment: Setup cannot find application file specified

Hi,
I'm having a difficult time trying to get my published C# application to install on another OS. The app includes 4 interdependent projects. When I try to run the setup
for the program, I get the following error:

ShellExecuteEx failed with error code 2
Error: The following error occurred attempting to install 'app.application':
"The system cannot find the file specified. "

I compiled and published the app on a windows xp machine using VC# 2005 Express. I ran the setup on a Windows
2000 machine. I made sure that both PCs had the same exact .NET framework, so I'm pretty confident that's not the problem.
What exactly does this error mean? And what files do I need besides the binary setup in order to install the app properly?
Could it be related to having multiple interdependent projects within the application?

This might be a really simple problem, considering this is my first time using ClickOnce. Any help on this would
be greatly appreciated

Thanks,
Hard Case

hard_case Tuesday, July 22, 2008 11:02 PM

Base on my understanding, you have meet the problem on installing the application which published on Windows XP to Windows 2000. Just base on the error message I cannot tell the actual reason.

According to the document, This error message “The system cannot find the file specified�?can occur when the folder structure in the updated version of the application does not match the folder structure in the original version of the application. The data files from the first version of the application are not copied correctly into the folders that are created when you install the updated version of the application. In other words, some files of your application are missing so the setup process cannot went on.

Therefore, it may be cause by the publication of the application. Some of your projects are not correctly included into the publication.

Please check the Application Files (at the Publish Page) to see if all of your project output files are correctly included and publish again.

In order to eliminate the net access reason, you can try to publish it via a CD to see if it can work and then publish via IIS or shared folder.

Hope you can find the solution in doing such test.

Best Regards,

Kira Qian

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Kira Qian Friday, July 25, 2008 6:35 AM

What service packs do you have installed on the W2K machine? You must have at least SP4 installed to support the .Net Framework.

Also, is that the whole error message? Is the ClickOnce deployment actually working, but something else you have going on is not? Can you check and see if the deployed files are there in the user's profile?

Also, this is a Windows Forms application, and not a Windows service, right?

RobinS.

GoldMail.com

RobinDotNet Wednesday, July 23, 2008 4:40 PM