Integrating a .exe file into a visual studio proje

Question

broken to bare-bones scene: I have a program in c# that calls a .exe inside cmd(using process.start), passing some required arguments.

What i'm trying to do: Include the exe into the project so that i don't have to call cmd.

Any idea?

Answer 1

You can add an exe as an embedded resource (just right click on a folder in the Solution explorer, Add Existing Item, then get properties on it and set it to be Embedded Resource). However, you may not be able to easily execute it in place - you'll need to save it to disk and then execute it (which doesn't solve your stated problem of having to ShellExecute the .exe file, but does solve the problem of having to ship more than one file to the end user).

If you have the source code, then you'll be able to repackage the exe as a dll, or integrate it directly into your program code.

Answer 2

If you just want to include so you don't have to ship two files then just include it into the project as "embedded resource" (see project item options) and then you can call ResourceManager.GetStream and write it to file and call Process.Start.

If you want integrate the functions of that exe so that the exe is not needed anymore (no Process.Start) then you need the source code...

EDIT: the "write to file" is not necessary if the exe is .NET - then you can directly load it from the resource stream as Assembly/AppDomin and execute it.

Answer 3

If the exe is a .NET assembly, you could use ILMerge to merge the exe into your main assembly. You can then invoke the code in the exe directly.