I have a strong programming background, but haven't written a Windows app that needed to be compiled in a few years. I just write a quick, simple program (64k compiled .exe) in Visual Basic 2005 to replace a batch file that needed a little more functionality. We keep this tool on our web site for customers to download to automate some steps.
In the past 3 days since this new version, 5 people have tried it, and it has failed for all 5 because none of them are running .NET 2.0. I figured that we might run into a person every once in a while that didn't have .NET 2.0, but I seem to have over-estimated the general population of Windows users. Actually, only 4 of the 5 got the message they needed .NET 2.0, and the 5th person got a runtime error that when researched told me that they don't have any version of .NET framework installed on their computer. I'm glad I didn't spend much time on this program because it seems to be totally worthless with the .NET requirement. I don't want to walk the users through downloading and installing a 22 MB .NET runtime so that our simple 64k program will run.
So, my question is: How can I work around this .NET 2.0 requirement? Is there a way to compile the program so that it doesn't need the .NET framework? Do I just need to buy the Pro version of VB? If not, then what can I use to write my program (language / compiler, etc.) so that it is not dependent on the user having .NET or other runtime libraries installed that don't come standard with Windows 2000 and newer? Any ideas and suggestions are welcome.
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