Contact person: Business Client

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Location: Manchester, United States

Budget: Recommended by industry experts

Time to start: As soon as possible

Project description:
"When I run my Win-desktop application from within Visual Studio 2022 everything works flawlessly—SQLite connects, data loads, no issues at all. The moment I build the MSI and install the app on the same machine, the database can’t be found and the program dies with a clear “file not found” error.

I have already walked through several troubleshooting steps: checked my connection string, verified Copy to Output Directory settings, experimented with both x86/x64 targets, and even inspected the installed folder structure after the MSI runs. Nothing has solved the problem.

What I need now is a clean, reproducible fix that lets the packaged application locate and open its SQLite database every time. If that means tweaking the installer project, adding a custom action, modifying environment variables, adjusting relative/absolute paths, or bundling the database differently, I’m open to it—as long as the end user can simply run the installer and start using the app without errors.

Deliverables (acceptance criteria):
• Updated project or installer settings that eliminate the “file not found” error on a fresh install
• Brief explanation of what changed and why, so I can apply the same approach to future builds
• Optional but appreciated: a quick sanity check of best-practice deployment for SQLite when using Visual Studio 2022

Tools in play are Visual Studio 2022, the built-in Setup Project (or WiX if you prefer), and SQLite. If you’ve solved this kind of packaging issue before, I’d love your guidance." (client-provided description)