creating a stand alone .exe ??

Question

I'm relatively new to the .NET environment, so I would like to ask a pretty elementary question.

I'm using C# to develop an application for a small business.

From what I've read (and may have misunderstood) - the C# compiler creates intermediate bytecode that is linked to the .NET dll's at run time.  Is this correct?

When I release this software package to my user, will I also have to insure that his PC has the .NET environment loaded?  Is there a way to compile a stand alone .exe?

Thanks!