Visual Studio Setup and Deployment Project

I am writing this post to create Setup and Deployment Project in Visual Studio 2005. Hope this will be really helpful for those who are creating such project for the first time. The steps followed in this project is nearly same both for Windows Desktop Applications projects and for Web Application Projects.

Step 1 (Setup Project Initial Step):
First of all there should be a Windows Project or Web Project for which Setup Project is needed to be created.
Its not necessary that you should load your project in Visual Studio for which you want to create installer.
In current example I have loaded a previous project which is a Windows Application  for which I will create a setup project. You can see WindowsApplication5 Project loaded in Visual Studio.

Step 2 (Creating a Setup Project):
Right click on the Solution Project and select New Project option from Add option sub menu.

Step 3 (Selecting Project Type):
Below is the Add New Project form.
Select Setup and Deployment from Other Project Types.
From the templates section select Setup Project template.
Enter the name for Setup project if you want.
Select the location if you want to change the default location for saving the project files.
Click OK.

Step 4 (Setup Project Loaded in Solution Explorer):
In below screen you can see that a Setup project gets added in Solution Explorer by the name Setup1.
On the Left Window File System Window is highlighted which is an option for Setting folder options in Setup Project.

Step 5 (Add Project Output):
Next we need the Output for our project for which we are creating setup.
Right click and Select Project Output option from Add option sub menu.

Step 6 ( Add Project Output):
Below you can see the Add Project Output form in which you need to select the Primary Output and from Project option you select the application for which setup is required.
Click OK.

Step 7 (Project Output Added to Setup Project):
In below  screen you can see the Project Output gets added to the Setup Project.

Step 8 (File System Settings for Setup):
Right click on Setup Project and select File System option from View sub menu.
On the left window you will see File System Window will appear. Here you have three folders for which we set few settings that are optional.
First is adding any extra files like help files to be added in Application Folder.
Second is adding Shortcut to Desktop for the Application.
Third is adding Shortcut to Programs menu for Application.

Step 9 ( Adding Shortcut on Desktop or Programs Menu):
Right click on Users Desktop Folder in File System Window or the Users Programs Menu if you want to add shortcut to any of them or both.
Next Right click in the Right Window and select Create New Shortcut option.

Step 10 (Select Item in Project):
Since you have application in Application Folder double click Application Folder.

Step 11 (Select Application Output):
Select Application Output for which we want to create shortcut from the Application Folder.
Click OK.

Step 12 (Shortcut Added):
In below screen that after the above step gets complete the Shortcut gets added to the Right Window.

Step 13 (Building the Setup Project):
Next we need to Rebuild or Build the Project  after Right clicking on Setup Project.

Step 14 (Installing Setup):
For installing the setup Right click on the Setup Project and click Install.
For uninstalling the Setup Right click on the Setup Project and click Uninstall.

Step 15 (Setup Project Installation):
Here our Setup got run and we can follow the installation Steps and out application gets installed on the System.

This is a long post may be I have skipped some thing since I have to give a basic understanding of how to create a setup project. Give me comments if you need any improvement.