Converting Windows applications to VB .NET

Converting Windows applications to VB .NET

I saw a question and your answer here:

http://searchvb.techtarget.com/vsnetATEAnswers/0,293820,sid8_gci1029453_tax293674,00.html

It's about converting Windows applications to .NET Web applications.

But I am looking for the reverse. In other words, I want to make an exe out of a .NET Web application. Is it possible?

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There is no automatic Web-to-Win application converter that I'm aware of. Screens will all have to be recreated from scratch. If you have properly separated the business logic from the UI logic, the most important parts of your application should be reusable as-is. If you haven't, you have a monumental task to work on, I'm afraid. There's another option, however, that you may want to consider. You can host the ASP.NET runtime in your destkop application, and have a WebBrowser control be the front-end in a WinForms app to the ASP.NET site you deploy locally as part of your desktop application installation, without needing IIS on the client or any other web server. You can explore this concept in the following articles: http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/msdn/community/columns/desmet/hostaspnet1.mspx
http://www.codeproject.com/dotnet/usingaspruntime.asp
http://www.west-wind.com/presentations/aspnetruntime/aspnetruntime.asp

This was first published in January 2005

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