The very first step is to click on the publish button!
This can be done by doing this: (Build>>Publish)

Pick a location, and choose "CD-ROM" (Although your are telling VS that you will publish this to a CD, it will still publish to the location you previously decided, so the CD is not neccessary). Choose whether or not you would like it to check for updates, and that's pretty much it!




As you can clearly see, the resulting installer will auto-create a start menu shortcut, a control panel shortcut, and will install it in the programs folder automatically!
You should get "Application Files", "[Name].application", and "setup.exe". Put that in a zip file in your application is ready to be distributed, and can be burned onto a CD if you actually want to!
Running setup.exe, the installer itself is an extremely easy to use single dialog box.

Upsides:
Super easy to create!
Super easy to use!
It does most of the stuff you would want to do!
0% Effort Necessary!
It actually works!!!
Downsides:
No License agreement or customization or anything
What it's useful for:
For distributing freeware and non-copyright and 0% having to do with legal stuff- applications.
For asking other people for help, a full installer itself is a challenge for many or for some just too much work, and just compressing the bin folder usually doesn't work. This is an easy way to distribute your program.