Distributing Windows applications
When distributing Windows applications, there can be extra files that you
also need to distribute. The files differ depending on compiler
and target platform.
This technical note is under construction.
32-bit applications
Files to distribute:
- msvcirt.dll, msvcrt.dll: they go in the Windows system directory. VC++ 5.0 and above.
- If using ODBC, the
Microsoft ODBC setup
should be provided.
- ctl3d32.dll: goes in the Windows system directory. Only if using wxWidgets 1.xx,
since wxWidgets 2 does not need this file. There are two different versions available that work
with Windows 95 and Windows NT: see Contributions and
the
ftp site files.
16-bit applications
Files to distribute:
- ctl3d32.dll: goes in the Windows system directory.
- ODBC setup files (see above).
Executable sizes
wxWidgets 2 produces smaller executables than wxWidgets 1, because of the way that classes
are designed to be less interdependent. Thus the 'minimal' sample compiled with VC++ 6 in
release mode is less than 400 KB.
If you want to distribute really small executables, you can either compile wxWidgets as a DLL
(but you then have to distribute a relatively large DLL), or you can
an executable compressor, such as Petite
by Ian Luck, or UPX
which has better compression, is free, and compresses both Windows and Linux executables. Highly recommended!