>Hi all,
>
>I hope you are doing well in this "so special" time period. I hope you all of us have some pleasant times ahead of us though!
>
>The motivation of this thread: exchanging on the way you deploy "VFP destkop applications" to-day. I really mean sheer desktop applications, the good old ones we use to build back in the days and deploy with, say, innosetup or the the Dinosaurian installshield.
>
>Those days of the "thick client" are gone of course. But there are still a bunch of business cases for such dinosaurs. And a few of us still produce and, try to to at least, sell them. Distributing windows apps to-day is getting a bit complex. And it gets even more complex when this app is relying on an old architecture such as VFP with applications that include:
>1- a vfp-based exe (obfuscated or not),
>2- vfp dlls and associated stuff,
>3- a significant amount of activeX and other dependencies.
>Let us not forget of course registry-level activity required by the stuff above (an action that may require admin rights or obscure manifests to be deployed as well)!
>
>We want our application to deploy in constrained environments (no admin right). My current solution:
>1- a zero-dependencies consolidated monolithic executable (with all the material above embedded in a single exe),
>2- EV code-signing for this executable in order to secure our users and, possibly, avoid or reduce filtering by antivirus-es or Windows Smartscre
>3- deployment as a plain and simple zip file containing both the signed executable and asssociated resource material (help file, example dataset,...).
>
>I am definitely satisfied with the software, boxedapp, used for bundling (no commercial affiliation here!). But of course this creates an additional dependency. No perfect solution in this world:-)
>
>Lately I started to wonder whether should offer on top the current proposition (copy based installation) an additional setup with a more traditional installer. In this later case, what would your recommendation be:
>1- use some plain quick and dirty installer-building tool or innosetup,
>2- should I make sure to use one that can produce MSI executable installer files (they will be signed)?
>
>Any creative alternative solutions are welcome by the way. We are looking to distribute applications that deploy like large-scale clients apps, such as Zoooooom!
>
>Daniel
>
>PS: Additional question those of you with a comprehensive understanding or experiences of those issues: "can you (and does it make any sense) to forward your executables to leading A-V software shops to reduce unjustified filtering?"

I've used the Installshield Express that ships with with VFP to create MSI ...here is some info

http://www.yaldex.com/fox_pro_tutorial/html/d906c831-cfde-4d4c-8b80-47041cff359b.htm#fowlkwalkthroughcreatingvisualfoxproapplicationsetupprogramusinginstallshieldexpressanchor3

..then I use this tool to twekk it. Been a while since I've done any of this, but as I recall I was using the tool below mostly to include a shortcut to the application on the users' desktop -- as I recall there was an issue with that when you used the installshield express installer thingy.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/msi/orca-exe

...that being said, there might be a better way to do what you want - perhaps others will join in here :)