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How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

The .NET Framework 1.1 ships as an OS component on the 32-bit Windows Server 2003 family of operating systems.  This .NET Framework component is a hidden, always-installed component with the exception of ASP.NET (which can be found as a selectable item underneath the Application Server item in the Add/Remove Windows Components control panel applet).

I have seen cases where the .NET Framework 1.1 stops working correctly on Windows Server 2003 (often due to bugs in daily builds of the .NET Framework 2.0).  In those cases, it is useful to perform a repair to get the .NET Framework 1.1 back to a known good state.  However, it can be difficult to figure out how to repair .NET 1.1 in these scenarios because the component is hidden and because there is some specific logic in the setup DLL that installs this component that prevents uninstall and reinstall after OS setup has completed.

In general, you can repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships with Windows Server 2003 by re-running OS setup and choosing to repair/reinstall, which will trigger the .NET Framework 1.1 component setup to rerun.

In addition, the following steps can be performed in order to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 on Windows Server 2003 while also avoiding the need to run a full OS reinstall:

  1. Delete the registry value netfx under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OC Manager\Subcomponents
  2. Create a file named netfx_repair.inf that contains the following text (or download it from here):

    [Version]
    Signature = "$Windows NT$"
    DriverVer=10/01/2002,5.2.3790.0
    [Components]
    netfx=netfxocm.dll,UrtOcmProc,netfxocm.inf,,7

  3. Open a cmd prompt and run the following command: sysocmgr /i:<full path to netfx_repair.inf>.

    This will bring up the Windows optional component installer wizard.  Press next and installation/repair of the .NET Framework 1.1 component will begin.  You will be asked for a path to install the files from if the location listed in the SourcePath value under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup is not accessible or no longer contains the necessary OS source files.  If this happens, you will need to point the wizard to the i386 directory of the OS source disk or a network share that contains the files.  Keep in mind that if you have a version of Windows Server 2003 with a service pack integrated into it, you will need to use a source location that also includes the service pack.
  4. After the wizard completes installation, you will have to manually rerun a modified command line to install assemblies to the GAC because the command line used by the .NET Framework 1.1 component only works correctly when OS installation is in progress.  The command line is the following:

    "%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\gacutil.exe" /f /il %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\assemblylist.txt

    You should substitute %windir% with the actual Windows directory on your system.

<update date="11/1/2005"> There is a Knowledge Base article that also describes how to troubleshoot .NET Framework 1.1 installation issues on Windows Server 2003 that can be useful in this type of scenarios.  You can find it at this location. </update>

<update date="9/29/2008"> Added a note about using source files with integrated service packs if the OS was originally installed with a service pack integrated. </update>

 

Published Tuesday, June 21, 2005 10:31 PM by astebner

Comments

Wednesday, June 22, 2005 12:33 AM by Nektar

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

A very easy and discoverable procedure! Well not at all.
This is why I believethat Microsoft should document more of the registry, more of the .exes and .dlls found under windows directory and more of the com components. Have you used the add reference dialog box in Visual Studio. It is a mess. You never know exactly what com component does what. They have this meaningless names and versioning is awful. Eg. you have 6 entry saying Windows Media Player 1.0. And why some components are named Microsoft ..., some other ones do not have the Micorosoft in their names. Let alone the fact that documentation is lacking or found in the SDK which is huge to download.
Windows Setup procedure should be more transbarent. The whole of Windows should be more transbarent. Like open source oses, I should be able to tweak Windows and know how to change the setup procedure and know exactly what files do what.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005 4:51 AM by Johan Myburgh

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Nektar,

take a chill pill

Read this and then come back all egg-faced:

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2005/05/26/cz_dl_0526linux.html?partner=rss
Thursday, June 23, 2005 2:11 PM by astebner

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Admittedly it can be hard to find, but there is some good info available about Windows setup, specifically around customization and unattend installs. I found this downloadable Windows Server 2003 Deployment Kit that looks pretty good on first glance - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=aaf0a7a4-71c1-4ee9-b974-66214651a23b&displaylang=en.

Also, I realize you won't find any specific details like the repair procedure I describe above, and I concede the point about transparency on some level. If it is any consolation, that is exactly why I'm blogging about some of these topics.

Thank you for reading...
Wednesday, July 13, 2005 5:32 AM by Andrew Campbell

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Brilliant article.

It didn't solve my problem, but it has been stored in the grey matter for future use.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005 12:30 PM by astebner

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Hi Andrew - thanks for the feedback. I'm sorry the post didn't solve your problem though. Could you describe your scenario in some more detail and I can try to help?

Friday, July 15, 2005 6:22 PM by Peter Stathakos - Stack Of Toast

# troubleshoot or Repair a .NET Installation

Friday, July 15, 2005 6:30 PM by Peter Stathakos - Stack Of Toast

# Troubleshoot or Repair a .NET Installation

Thursday, August 11, 2005 5:54 PM by Diego

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Thank you so much for this info. I was having a problem where every time I opened a C# project in Visual Studio .NET 2003, I got the error message "Visual C# .NET compiler could not be created. Please re-install Visual Studio." By reinstalling the .NET Framework, I was able to get Visual Studio working without a full reinstall.
Thursday, September 01, 2005 11:31 PM by Aaron Stebner's WebLog

# How to repair the .NET Framework 1.0 that ships as part of the OS on Media Center and Tablet PC

A couple of months ago I posted some instructions about how to repair the OCM version of the .NET Framework...
Sunday, September 18, 2005 12:31 PM by Jay

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Excellent article!! I had upgraded a production web server to also be a backup domain controller and ASP.NET quit working instantly.

This article fixed the problem--good work!
Thursday, December 22, 2005 3:19 AM by Mike

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Hello,

It still does not correct the problem with Framework 1.1 on Windows 2003.
When I load a project in 1.1 says "Paramete not Valid" and also all the program using Framework 1.1 do not work correctly.

I used the procedure mentioned by MS to reinstall the .NET Framework, but it still gives the same error.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006 3:22 PM by astebner

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Hi Mike - It sounds like the repair of the .NET Framework 1.1 might not have worked correctly. Could you try to run the steps listed in this blog post one more time and see if that helps? If not, could you try to run the .NET Framework verification tool located at http://astebner.sts.winisp.net/Tools/netfx_setupverifier.zip to verify the correctness of the .NET Framework 1.1 installation on your system? You can send me the log file that this tool produces if it reports a failure and I can try to take a look (aaronste@microsoft.com).
Sunday, April 09, 2006 6:56 AM by Mohamed Yehia's Blog

# How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Saturday, June 03, 2006 1:10 AM by Khalid

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Hi Guys,

I have installed windows 2003 server. It installed .net framework 2.0 automaticaly. I manually configured it to run ASP.NET applications. My ASP.NET applications are developed using version 1.1. It does not run successfully in v 2.0. I used web user control and access controls thru reference on aspx pages like webusercontrolid:txtUserName.text

Secondly, I uninstalled v 2.0 and tried to install v 1.1, it does not let me to do so. Please help how can i install v 1.1 on windows 2003 server
Saturday, June 03, 2006 1:56 AM by astebner

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Hi Khalid - The .NET Framework 1.1 is installed as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003, so you do not need to install it because it is already there.  You do need to enable ASP.NET manually, though.  You can do that by going to Add/Remove Programs, choosing Add/Remove Windows Components, clicking on the Application Server node, choosing Details, and checking ASP.NET.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006 10:00 PM by Ic0n

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Thanks heaps for this article, Followed steps 1-4 on a server that had file system corruption due to running out of disk space
:-O and it fixed .net 1.1 very handy
Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:38 PM by jimbutler

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Hi Aaron,

thanks for the excellent post.

I've followed your instructions but I still cannot see the ASP.Net extensions in the server mappings in IIS.

Are there any other suggestions?

I executed aspnet_regiis against individual applications as well as with the -i option.

I even upgraded to .Net 2.0. When I tried this, new extensions appeared (such as .compiled, .master etc) but still no sign of aspx, asmx etc!

Cheers,

Jim
Tuesday, August 15, 2006 3:47 PM by astebner

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Hi Jimbutler - There is a separate OCM component on Windows Server 2003 that controls ASP.NET IIS settings.  Can you please try to do the following:

1.  Click on the Start menu, choose Run, type appwiz.cpl and click OK

2.  Click on the Add/Remove Windows Components button on the left side of the page that appears

3.  Click on the Application Server item and then click the Details button

4.  Check the ASP.NET item and click OK

If ASP.NET was already checked, it may help to uncheck it, click OK to remove it, and then go back and re-check it to add it back.

Hopefully this helps!
Wednesday, August 16, 2006 4:46 AM by jimbutler

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Hi Aaron,

I have to say I didn't expect that to work... but it did! I had tried that before, but not just after the steps above, and it worked!

Happy days!

Thanks,

Jim
Wednesday, August 23, 2006 10:54 AM by Fred's weBlogs on IT.

# How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Take a look at this... and it works!
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/06/21/431385.aspx ...
Sunday, August 27, 2006 6:44 PM by Aaron Stebner's WebLog : Unified .NET Framework Troubleshooting Guide

# Aaron Stebner's WebLog : Unified .NET Framework Troubleshooting Guide

PingBack from http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/articles/454956.aspx
Wednesday, September 13, 2006 6:28 PM by Brutus_

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

This might sound stupid, but what should be in the assemblylist.txt file. My understanding is that this is a list of assemblies to put into the Global Assembly Cache. What do you need in this file if you are just reinstalling the .Net Framework on Windows 2003.

Thanks,

Mark
Friday, September 15, 2006 2:43 AM by astebner

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Hi Brutus - The file assemblylist.txt is installed as a part of Windows Server 2003 OS setup.  You should not need to create or modify that file at all in order to repair using the instructions in this blog post.  Are you seeing that file is missing on your system?  If so, the file should contain the following items:

Microsoft.Vsa.Vb.CodeDOMProcessor.dll
Microsoft_VsaVb.dll
Microsoft.Vsa.dll
Microsoft.VisualBasic.Vsa.dll
cscompmgd.dll
Microsoft.JScript.dll
Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
Microsoft.VisualC.dll
RegCode.dll
System.EnterpriseServices.dll
System.Security.dll
CustomMarshalers.dll
Accessibility.dll
System.Configuration.Install.dll
System.DirectoryServices.dll
System.Drawing.Design.dll
System.ServiceProcess.dll
System.Web.dll
System.Web.RegularExpressions.dll
System.Web.Services.dll
System.Windows.Forms.dll
System.Xml.dll
System.Data.dll
System.Design.dll
System.Drawing.dll
System.dll
System.Messaging.dll
IEExecRemote.dll
IEHost.dll
IIEHost.dll
ISymWrapper.dll
mscorcfg.dll
System.Data.OracleClient.dll
System.Management.dll
System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.dll
System.Web.Mobile.dll
Thursday, September 28, 2006 8:22 PM by Judas

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

For some reason when doing the re-install I get an error message of "RTE! Program: C:\windows\system32\RunDll32.exe   This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way."

The error appears right when the status is showing "Completing configuration of netfx". The bar is only 10% along. If I click OK on this  error the program sits for a few minutes and then disappears. I'm not sure if it's actually re-installing correctly.

Has anyone seen this type of error? Tried repairing .Net 2.0 as well but that didn't work. When I run the cleanup tool only .Net 1.0 and 2.0 are listed... not 1.1.

This is on a Windows Server 2003 R2 system. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Friday, September 29, 2006 12:55 AM by astebner

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Hi Judas - The .NET Framework 1.1 is installed as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003, so I intentionally made the cleanup tool not allow you to remove it.

The error you describe is not coming from the .NET Framework setup itself.  There are not any commands that run RunDll32.exe within .NET Framework setup.  I'm not sure exactly which component is causing that error though.  Do you happen to have a screenshot of the error message and the status dialog so I can try to narrow this down a bit further?  If so, you can send them to Aaron.Stebner (at) microsoft (dot) com so I can take a look.
Thursday, October 05, 2006 5:13 AM by Cerebrus

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Hi Aaron, Searching all over for a solution to my problem brought me to your blog. I see you've been very helpful to a lot of people. My problem is that my system crashed recently and I had to format and reinstall Win 2003. Apparently my CD has developed a few scratches and the file "dotnetfx.cab" in the i386 folder on the CD has become corrupt. Therefore the reinstall did not properly install .NET 1.1. Now, I'm trying to repair the framework. I tried to repair using the .NET 1.1 redistributable, but Win 2003 won't allow that. The redistributable too contains a netfx1.cab file, but its contents appear to be different in name and number from the file on the CD. I tried the method mentioned in your post above, but the repair searches for files within the dotnetfx.cab file, which are corrupted and so it fails. Are there any options for me ? I am wondering if I should try the Removal tool for .NET install failures, but it doesn't seem designed for this kind of problem. Thanks in advance for any help. Cerebrus.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 11:58 PM by astebner

# re: How to repair the .NET Framework 1.1 that ships as part of the OS on Windows Server 2003

Hi Cerebrus - If you do not have another Windows Server 2003 CD to get a valid copy of dotnetfx.cab, you will need to find all of the files that were otherwise a part of dotnetfx.cab, and put all of them in a folder.  Then you can browse to that folder you create when you run the steps listed above.  You can find the files by downloading the .NET 1.1 redistributable and running the following:

dotnetfx.exe /c:"msiexec /a netfx.msi TARGETDIR=c:\temp"

This will put the files into c:\temp.  There are a few files that are not included in the MSI-based setup but are in the Windows Server 2003 INF-based setup.  You can probably just take those files from the existing Windows Server 2003 build that you have on your system, or from another Windows Server 2003 system.

Hopefully this will help.  Please contact me using http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/contact.aspx if you have any trouble getting this to work.

Also, please note that the cleanup tool will not work here because it does not allow you to remove the version of the .NET Framework that is installed as part of the OS.

Saturday, October 21, 2006 12:16 PM by Aaron Stebner's WebLog

# Unified .NET Framework Troubleshooting Guide

Details about the .NET Framework 2.0 setup packaging Available command line switches for .NET Framework

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