How can I make small distribution kit in CVI 7.1

[Erez_Farhi]

I need to build a small distribution kit, My app distribution kit size is 6 MB - How can I make it smaller?

[DaveC]

Erez,

Are you including any files with your distribution kit such as .bmp files?  Bitmaps tend to be rather bulky and you can make them take up much less space by saving them as a .pcx file (assuming that you are using them in your controls since CVI supports .pcx).

[Erez_Farhi]

I had two bmp files with picture controls, I removed them from the project but still have 6 MB setup.

[DaveC]

Erez,

What other types of files do you have?  Is it a couple big files, or lots of smaller files?

[Erez_Farhi]

I have 1 uir with 3 panels and 170 lines of code

Its a small application

[josswern]

ok, I know this is not a direct answer, but maybe worth to consider anyways.
what about having customers just install cvirte (+ni-daq in case your programs does data acq) once and subsequently
send them zip files, only containing the executables+uir for your app (these are rarely > 1MB in most cases).
at least, this is what I do after some hassle with dist. kits.
it may not be elegant, but it works.

[DaveC]

Erez,

When creating a distribution kit we should see the following files:

DistFile.cab

instmsi.exe

instmsiw.exe

setup.exe

setup.ini

TestProj.msi

Now, as long as the target machine isn't a windows 9x or NT 4.0 (not sure about win2000) you don't need to have the instmsi.exe or instmsiw.exe in your kit.  To experiment with this I created a distribution kit and deleted before install and didn't have a problem when i used TestProj.msi or setup.exe (I'm running windows XP). 

instmis.exe - only used for windows 9x

instmsiw.exe - only used for windows NT

knowing this, you could make three separate kits, one for each platform set, this would definately save you some space.  You could also zip the entire project up and save yourself some space.  Using this method, you can get your kit to under half the size of the original 6 meg (probably around 2.7 megs).

[Erez_Farhi]

Bouth files size is about 3 MB

That help a lot

Thanks very much

[cdk52]

Hi.

I found some useful information on this topic here.

Colin.

[test_man]

Under target settings uncheck Enable loadexternalmodule. I am guessing you are not calling external dlls by using LoadExternalModule.

By default it is enabled but most people don't need it. This will reduce your distribution size.