Users can install the application from a CD or DVD or from a file server or Web site. The system administrator or release engineer is responsible for writing the files to the disk if a CD or DVD is used.
If the files are available to the user on a server, the publish.htm file provides easy access to the application and its prerequisites. See Application Bootstrapping.
The application can be available both online and offline, or online only. If you select online only, the application can be run only from the Web. Otherwise, the application is installed on the client. It can be run from the Windows Start menu and is added to the Add or Remove Programs page in the Windows Control Panel (Programs and Features page on Vista and later) so that the user can roll back to the previous version or remove the application.
Whether the application is available online only or offline as well, all the files it needs except optional assemblies are downloaded to the client and stored in an application-specific secure cache in the user’s Local Settings directory. Keeping the files in a separate cache enables the intelligent updater to manage updates to the physical files on the user’s computer.