I have written a simple viewer in Visual Basic that displays various
types of content.  I would like to create a new and separate program
that would generate self contained (stand alone) .exe versions of that
viewer.  Each instance would have different content, etc.  I would
like to give this program to clients so they can create their own
versions of my viewer in a wizard driven application.  They would use
their own content, titles, etc.

Where can I go to find information and examples of how to generate
self contained (stand alone) .exe files within a Visual Basic
application?  Thank you for your time.  Have a great one.

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Request for Question Clarification by palitoy-ga on 02 Jun 2004 07:22 PDT

Hello Johngl

Are you looking for a program to make an installation file for your
program or something else?  I have some experience with creating .exe
files from VB projects and I can provide an answer detailing the
software I have used for this.

Please let me know if this is acceptable.

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Clarification of Question by johngl-ga on 02 Jun 2004 12:42 PDT

I'm not looking to create an installation program.  I looking to
create different instances of the viewer I've create.  For example my
viewer will display document A.  I want a program that will change
that data within the exe file and create a new exe file.  I want to
create another program that will allow users to plug in their
document, title, etc. and then create an whole new exe.

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Clarification of Question by johngl-ga on 10 Jun 2004 13:10 PDT

Just for clarification, I am NOT looking for an installation program
in any way.  I'm looking to generate exe files from my VB code.  I
want to create the exe files not have something else create them.  No
install programs please.  Thanks for your time.  Have a great one.

In VB5/6 I did something very much like this -- built a configuration
tool that enabled a user to completely customize an application by
simply editing a INI file associated with it. The exe then remains the
same, but the user just keeps the appropriately configured setup file
in the same directory. Why not try something like this? The end result
sounds the same -- a complete customiszed application.

In .Net it's easier -- use dynamic properties, which saves initial
values to the app.config file. Save everything from file paths,
titles, bgcolors, start-up positions -- just about anything you want.

I suppose another option (that I can't really vouch for) would be to
store all configuration in strings in the VB app -- maybe buffered
strings if regular strings don't work. Then in your new app, copy the
original exe, read through the binary file and replace the old
configuration strings with the new ones. VB stores strings as
plaintext -- this is why it's a always a bad idea to declare
usernames/passwords and things like connections strings in a vb app.

Alongwith the Visual Studio 6.0 installation there is a tool Package
and Deployment wizard. Use that tool to create a distributable
installable package.
It will create an installable setup file, so that your application can
be distributed on computers not having Visual Studio installed.