Install ClickOnce without running
I guess you could fake it. Introduce an "IsInstalled" boolean property, defaulted to false. Then in Program.cs, change your Main() method to look like this:
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
if (!Properties.Settings.Default.IsInstalled)
{
Properties.Settings.Default.IsInstalled = true;
Properties.Settings.Default.Save();
MessageBox.Show("Install Complete");
return;
}
Application.Run(new Form1());
}
So now when the app is first installed, it checks that property and simply displays a message to the user and then quits.
If you wanted to get tricky then you could look at parsing the Activation URI for the deployment and have a URI parameter which specifies whether the program should run when it's first installed or just close silently.