best way to make a standalone windows app - single exe?

[hudster]

i'm looking to make a standalone windows app - I just want it to be a single exe, no dlls, no nothin'. I was just wondering what the consensus is, as far as what the best way (what development tools, etc) to do this.

thanks.

 

[Kappo]

I would use VB. The tool doesnt really matter much as far as I am concerned.

 

[MrChad]

Your question is pretty vague. Are you looking to make a GUI application? Do you want to eliminate all dependencies?

I would initially recommend Visual Basic for a simple GUI application, but that requires runtime files installed. I guess Visual C++ or Delphi would work.

 

[WannaFly]

Originally posted by: Kappo
I would use VB. The tool doesnt really matter much as far as I am concerned.

I believe making anything in VB CANT be standalone. VB revquires the standard VB DLL's, unless you write your own for every control and embed them into the EXE.

 

[hudster]

Originally posted by: MrChad
Your question is pretty vague.

\

sorry, yes, i'm looking at making a small windows gui app, but I want it to be totally standalone: no dll dependencies, no installer, no registry entries, just a single exe that needs no vb runtime, no .net framework, none of that stuff.

 

[igowerf]

Originally posted by: hudster

Originally posted by: MrChad
Your question is pretty vague.

\

sorry, yes, i'm looking at making a small windows gui app, but I want it to be totally standalone: no dll dependencies, no installer, no registry entries, just a single exe that needs no vb runtime, no .net framework, none of that stuff.

You're still kind of vague. You can write a program in C++ that's completely stand-alone if you don't use the MFC libraries. To avoid registry entries, just don't write to the registry.

You COULD write an app in VB and use a utility that combines all the VB dll's and the VB app into one executable.

 

[hudster]

Originally posted by: igowerf
You COULD write an app in VB and use a utility that combines all the VB dll's and the VB app into one executable.

really? i didn't realize utilities such as that existed.


and as for c++, using MFC, you're saying i'll still have dependencies even doing it that way?

 

[Nothinman]

You can statically compile most languages so that you get one huge executable (it puts all the dlls into the exe, so it's size is the sum of all those files) but I've never seen a VB app done like that.

Every app using MFC that isn't statically linked requires MFC.dll, it's necessary for Windows so you're guaranteed it'll be there so most people don't care about that dependency.

 

[igowerf]

I remember a few years ago, when I did a lot of programming in VB6, I found a utility that recompiles your VB program along with all the dll's. It seemed like a dumb thing to do since most people will have the VB6 runtimes. If they didn't, I usually included them with my Setup program so they have the option of installing them.

As for MFC, like Nothinman said, almost all computers will have the files you need. Unless the goal of the project is to make a stand-alone app, MFC should be fine.