we're trying to figure out a way to build a .NET application that can run entirely self contained from a CD. Basically user pops in a CD, boots to an operating system on the CD and a barebones .NET Framework starts up with the application. We've looked at hacking the .NET Framework into WinPE but realize it's really an unsupported hack. Has anyone tried anything like this and had any success?
You pretty much need to have the .NET framework installed on the machine for this to work. If the correct framework is installed, this won't be an issue - just run the executable.
Tools like NGEN still require the framework to be installed.
However, there are some commercial tools, such as PostBuild, that will go through and compile all of the required dependencies into native code. In theory, this would provide your required behavior.