Setup Project Visual Studio

Running a console C# application using a Setup Project without installing isn’t natively supported because installers are meant to install apps. However, you have some options:

• Use a custom action in the Setup Project to launch the app immediately after installation (install still occurs).
• Distribute the console app executable and dependencies directly so users can run it without any setup or install.
• Create a self-extracting archive that extracts and runs the app without a formal installation step.

If you want zero install and direct execution, distributing the raw executable is usually the simplest approach.

Good Luck!

If you want to skip setup projects entirely, you can publish your console app like this:

dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true /p:PublishSingleFile=true

If you already have the compiled .exe (e.g., from bin\Release\net9.0), just run:

cd "C:\Path\To\Your\ConsoleApp\bin\Release\net9.0"

MyConsoleApp.exe