ClickOnce

ClickOnce is a new deployment technology created by Microsoft to ease the deployment of applications over the web. This new deployment technology was first unleashed in 2004 and has quite a fan following. ClickOnce was first shipped with .Net Framework 2.0 and has close integration with .Net applications.

Windows Installer Service is a system level component that allows you to install and manage your applications in a manner consistent and contingent with the Windows Operating System. Windows Installer Service is known for its ability to handle shared and low level system components, while providing setup authors with features that allow them to repair when needed and rollback when installation fails.

Choosing Between ClickOnce and Windows Installer is an article on MSDN that compares the differences between Windows Installer Service and ClickOnce and talks about how the two can complement one another if used together.

The Visual Basic 2005 team put out a hands on Web session on Deploying a Visual Basic Application with ClickOnce Technology. The session consisted of creating a sample Visual Basic Application, creating a deployment project for ClickOnce in Visual Studio to deploy this application and finally hosting it for download via IIS. The session concluded with sending an update to the sample visual basic application via ClickOnce.

The WebCast was scheduled on April 16th 2007 and was presented by Peter Thok, Application Development Consultant, Exsilio Consulting.

Watch the Recorded Webcast : MSDN Webcast: Guided Hands-on Lab: Adding ClickOnce Deployment to Visual Basic Applications (Level 200)

ClickOnce is a Microsoft deployment technology that allows you to deploy your dotnet applications via the web. It allows you to deploy your files via the web without requiring admin rights on the machine on a user basis. You can publish your applications via ClickOne from Visual Studio itself. Kirupa.com has a tutorial that walks you through the process of creating a Clickonce package for your application at http://www.kirupa.com/net/clickOnce.htm