How to create install package for app using local SQL server database

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thoatson

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I wrote a small app to learn more about SQL and experiment with Entity Framework. Users of my app will not be sharing databases; each will have their own. On first execution, my app creates the database locally, and after that opens the existing database. So far, so good - it works pretty well on my laptop, which has SQL Server 2017 installed.

I tried copying the assemblies to my desktop machine and that also worked as expected, though SQL Server was not installed.

But when I tried copying the assemblies to another laptop, the app would not run. The exception I saw was:

"A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The Server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 52 - Unable to locate a local Database Runtime Installation. Verify SQL Server Express is properly installed and that the Local Database Runtime feature is enabled.)"

All machines are Windows 10. (Is it significant that the desktop machine has Visual Studio 2019 installed?)

I don't want other users to be required to install SQL Server (Express, or otherwise). What do I need to include in my installation?

Can it be done more-or-less automatically by using ClickOnce deployment (a.k.a. Publishing Wizard)? Or do I need to build an .msi with Wix code?

Is SQLite a better option for this?

I have seen mention of SQL Server Compact Edition, but when I tried to run this down, it seemed like this is no longer available from Microsoft. And I believe I'm already using SQL Server Express (looks like this is confirmed by the error message, above)...

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