I have to deploy an application that targets .net 4.0 framework.
I use a zip that packages all binaries and deliver (unzip) them on the "client" to a specified folder. For security reasons I have to use only the specified folder.
Given that the "client" doesn't have .net 4.0 installed, is it possible to include .net 4.0 binaries in that zip. What binaries should I include?
If you are using a full installer you might be able to bootstrap the .NET runtime installation, but you can't simply xcopy-deploy .NET; for "normal" usage, your user is going to need the .NET runtime installed. This is a system level package that installs into pre-determined locations that you don't get to choose.
There are specialized tools that try to work around this, such as thinstall or Salamander, but they aren't usually free. Additional, this is not "normal", and all usual support / reliability expectations would be off the table.