Vb.net 2008 - Deployment confusion

[Robtyketto]

Greetings,

I'm a newbie and cannot fathom the deployment process.

I noticed WITHOUT a Setup project/Setup wizard project in my solution (desktop application) when publishing creates a setup.exe which runs an installer of a kind.

Not a typical windows installer with welcome, installation folder screens etc..,

I added a setup project to my solution for deployment purposes which when the solution is built creates a setup .msi .exe in the release folder as specified.

The configuration manager shows both the app and setup will be built to the respective release folder.

Which runs as intended.

Now I understood to distribute my app to other users is to publish the solution by highlighting both project and choosing publish selection.

I can then specify the location for the published files.

After I do this is seems to only create the application with its setup.exe and not the setup project .msi and setup which contain my personal settings and screens for the window installer.

Can anyone please advise where Im going wrong?

Im a newbie and embarressed not to be able to complete such a simple process :(

Hope that I have explained the problem clearly which is that I cannot distribute the setup.exe created by my setup project.

Rob

[Robtyketto]

UPDATE: Have I confused this as ONE process where the setup project being built and copied to the dest machine is all that is needed to be distributed and not having to publish the application? i.e they are TWO seperate methods to install the application.

[GeekByChoiCe]

To create the installer (.msi) you just need to build the setup project. ignore the "publish" stuff from your application.
But keep in mind, each time you change something to your application you have to rebuild the setup project aswell ;)