VistaDB does not have to be "installed" before it is used on a target
machine. There are no services to be installed that often require elevated
privileges (often called Serverless design).
You don't even need to create an administrator to build or assign permissions
to the database. There are no required configuration files for the database
to be deployed. This is sometimes referred to as an
embedded database.
ASP.Net Shared Hosting and Winforms Apps - nothing to install
We designed VistaDB to handle the shared hosting environment as well. Most
users do not have permissions to install anything on their shared host. Many
.NET components are not Medium Trust compliant and often require the admin on the
machine to put them in the GAC or give them special permissions. Not so with
VistaDB. Put the runtime dll in your bin folder and FTP the site.
Single File Database
The VistaDB embedded database engine processes SQL commands and performs low-level
reading and writing of data in VistaDB databases. The entire VistaDB engine is contained
in a single less than 1 MB fully managed assembly which may be freely deployed
with your applications. The engine (i.e. assembly) does not require any special
registration or configuration on the end-user machine. It can be placed in the same
directory as your applications or it can be installed to the GAC. Another way to
deploy the VistaDB is to fully embed it into your EXE using
Microsoft ILMerge. We call this ZeroClick deployment since there is no additional
files or assemblies to deploy with your application.
Windows 8 / 7 / Vista Elevated Rights (User Access Control)
VistaDB requires no elevated rights on Windows Vista (UAC) in order to run.
Have users who are running as guest? Not a problem!
We hear from users all the time that they were so happy with the deployment of VistaDB
to their customers desktops after having so many problems with SQL CE and SQL Express
requiring elevated rights and registry access permissions.
Isolated Storage
VistaDB even supports running from Isolated Storage for increased control if you
are running Active Directory. Isolated Storage files are moved with users
roaming profiles and are controlled in size and permissions through Active Directory.