'Single .exe file is too large

I am trying to create a single file executable in C#. However I don't like how large the file is. A simple Hello World program is 20mb on its own. Is there a good way to shrink the size of this, perhaps by removing things the program does not use.

Below is my .csproj file for the Hello World test program. I would also like to state I am editing in Release mode if this makes a difference

    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>net5.0</TargetFramework>
    <RuntimeIdentifier>win-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>

    <PublishSingleFile>true</PublishSingleFile>
    <PublishTrimmed>true</PublishTrimmed>
    <IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract>true</IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract>
c++sharpexe.net-5


Solution 1:[1]

First, try upgrading to .NET 6 if you can. A trimmed self-contained single-file .NET 6 Hello World console app is ~11MB, not 20MB.

To go further, you can try disabling framework features: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/deploying/trimming/trimming-options#trimming-framework-library-features

You can compress assemblies, although this comes with a performance cost at runtime: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/deploying/single-file/overview#compress-assemblies-in-single-file-app

And if you need to go even further, soon you'll be able to do AOT compilation using NativeAOT; this will build much smaller executables as they do not need to include the JIT compiler. NativeAOT will be shipping with .NET 7; keep an eye on the .NET 7 preview releases for instructions.

You may find this blog post on the topic useful: https://www.awise.us/2021/06/05/smallest-dotnet.html

Sources

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Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1 Reilly Wood

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