Setup project or Web Setup Project?

[changobutt]

I've been building a Setup Project for my application, and now I'm thinking if I should have used a Web Setup Project instead. I don't quite understand the advantages of a Web Setup Project.

My situation:
Right now, I create an installation package on my development machine. I copy this .msi file to the server's website. The server hosts a website where clients can download this file. So, on the client machine, I open up a browser and download this file from the website and run it (to install the application).

So now I'm reading MSDN help files. This is what it said for Web Setup Projects:
"To deploy a Web application to a Web server, you create a Web Setup project, build it, copy it to the Web server computer, and run the installer to install the application on the server using the settings defined in your Web Setup project."



I'm reading this help and I'm thinking that it's exactly the same as what I do now. With the Web Setup Project, I still have to copy the file over. So what's the difference?? Am I missing something, or misunderstanding the help in anyway? My application is a stand-alone application. What does a "web application" mean?

Help!

 

[Robby]

A Web Setup project will deploy to a web server, this means the installation takes place on the server. If this is a Windows application then a regular Setup project is what you need. Uploading the msi to a server is not considered deployment.

 

[changobutt]

Great, thanks for the clarification!