generate an executable in vb.net with access database

I created a stock management application in vb.net with an access database.

Now I want to deploy it with VS 2022, but when I install it after deployment the database is not present.

I added the database file to the solution and it works successfully when running in Visual Studio, but I can’t see the database file after I deploy it.

How can I fix this?

A couple things to keep in mind:

First, Visual Studio Solution Explorer provides a Properties section for each file in the solution. Non-code files have a property for how to treat the file during build, which includes options to "Do not copy", "Copy if Newer", and "Always Copy". You want one of latter two.

Second, you mention installing the program, which often means adding the files to the Program Files folder. By default, standard users have not had write access to this folder since transitioning from FAT32 to NTFS, which goes back to at least 2003 for most people, if not older. This means your users will not be able to make changes to the database file, even if you get it to copy correctly.

To resolve this, you can still just deploy the DB to the Program Files folder if you want, which is the easiest option, but then only treat this as a reference DB file. You then add code to your application's startup process that copies this deployed DB to the special Application Data folder in such a way that it will not overwrite the existing file if it already exists. Do this without calling File.Exists(), and instead always call the File.Copy() overload that will not overwrite an existing file.