Build a standalone Windows executable in Visual Studio

Standalone Windows executables are compiled ahead of time (AOT) and distributed as three executable files (.exe, .dll, .runtimeconfig.json). This format is ideal for small executables called from the command line or from other applications.

To create an AOT Windows executable in Visual Studio 2022 or later

Start a new project

Create a C# console app
Name the app
Select .NET 8.0 or later framework, and Enable native AOT publish
To test the application we will write some temporary code in Program.cs

// See https://aka.ms/new-console-template for more information
Console.WriteLine("Test executable started");

// Read the command line arguments into an array
string[] arguments = args;
Console.WriteLine($"Number of command line arguments {arguments.Length}");

if (arguments != null && arguments.Length > 0)
{
    var firstArgument = arguments[0];
    Console.WriteLine($"First argument = {firstArgument}");

    if (firstArgument == "ERROR" )
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Throw divide by zero exception");
        int a = 0;
        int b = 1 / a;
    }

}

Console.WriteLine("Test executable exited without error");

Build the executable

Prerequisites

To be able to build, link and publish the standalone executable we need to install the “Desktop development with C++” Visual Studio workload.

In the Tools menu select Get Tools and Features
Install the Desktop development with C++ workload

Publish the executable

In the Solution Explorer right-click the project and select Publish
Select Folder as the target
Select Folder again for the specific target
Select the target location and click Finish
Close the dialog when the build has been completed

Running the standalone executable

By default the output is placed in the bin\Debug\net8.0 directory

To run the (not really) “standalone” application, we need the following three files in the same directory:

.exe
.dll
.runtimeconfig.json