Thoughts about setup and deployment issues, WiX, XNA, the .NET Framework and Visual Studio
All postings are provided AS IS with no warranties, and confer no rights. Additionally, views expressed herein are my own and not those of my employer, Microsoft.
Question:
I recently installed Windows Vista. When I looked in the Programs and Features (formerly known as Add/Remove Programs) control panel, I didn't see the .NET Framework 2.0 listed. Therefore I decided to install the .NET Framework 2.0 by downloading it from this location. However, running that setup displays an error message stating that it cannot be installed because it is already a part of the OS. Why does this happen?
Answer:
Over the past few months, I've received several variations on this question for other operating systems and all of the released versions of the .NET Framework. When the .NET Framework is installed as a part of the OS, it does not appear in the Programs and Features (or Add/Remove Programs) control panel. The following is a complete list of which version of the .NET Framework is included in which version of the OS:
Note - for the .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5, you can see a graphical view of the above information in this blog post.
In addition, the .NET Framework shipped with the following versions of Windows but not as truly integrated OS components:
You can see a table of what version numbers are associated with each version of the .NET Framework in this blog post.
<update date="3/27/2008"> Added a note that the .NET Framework 1.1 is not included in 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003. Added information about Windows Server 2008. </update>
<update date="7/29/2008"> Added a note about Windows XP SP3. </update>
<update date="8/14/2008"> Added a note about Vista SP1 and the .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 and 3.0 SP1 </update>
<update date="1/12/2009"> Added a note about the .NET Framework 1.0 SP3 for Windows XP Media Center and Tablet PC editions. </update>
<update date="4/1/2009"> Added a note about the .NET Framework versions available on Windows 7 </update>
<update date="8/26/2009"> Added a note about Windows Server 2008 SP2. </update>
<update date="8/29/2009"> Added a note about Windows Server 2008 R2. </update>
<update date="2/5/2010"> Added a link to a blog post with a graphical view of the versions of Windows that include the .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5. </update>
<update date="4/27/2010"> Added a link to a blog post with a list of the exact version numbers for each .NET Framework version and service pack level. </update>
<update date="9/8/2012"> Added a note about Windows 8. </update>
I often get asked about how to perform silent and unattended installs for various versions of the .NET
Question: I tried to install the .NET Framework 4 beta 1 and Visual Studio 2010 beta 1 on my Windows
A list of exact version numbers would be useful too, for example whhich one is 2.0.50727 ? Forgive me if I've just not looked hard enough.
Hi Andykn - I think the information at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/07/12/438245.aspx contains what you're looking for here. Can you please take a look and let me know?
Thanks, this helped!
Hi Aaron, any thoughts in Raymonds today's post?
blogs.msdn.com/.../10149346.aspx
Hi MVadu - I agree with Raymond's comments in that post. I've seen a lot of setup programs that don't try to do anything to detect the install state of the .NET Framework because they assume that it will be present as a part of the OS, and that isn't something that should be relied on unless you're creating a line of business application that will only be installed in a known, controlled set of machines with known versions of the .NET Framework.
There is one issue here though - there is not a standalone installer for some versions of the .NET Framework for some versions of Windows. For example, there is not a .NET Framework 2.0 SP2 installer for Windows Vista - instead you have to install the latest Windows Vista service pack to get 2.0 SP2. If you are going to redirect your users to a .NET Framework installer as a part of your application's setup, you need to be careful about covering the cases where a standalone .NET Framework installer is not available for some versions of Windows. I've seen some application installers that point users to the redistributable .NET Framework 2.0 or 3.5 installer on Windows Vista and Windows 7, and that installer will not allow the user to install on some of those versions of Windows.
Aron,
Is it possible to install VS 2008 (90 day trial) on windows 7 ?
I un installed .Net 4 and verified 3.5 and 3.5 sp1 successfully .
I tried installing VS 2008 in both Win 7 enterprise and home premium edition .In both the o/s I got the same error missing NetFX2.0-KB936704-v6000-x86_RTM_en.msu file from bootstrapper directory.
I do have SQL 2008 installed on my Win 7 enterprise machine. But it shouldn't really matter.
Is there clean step by step approach
My friends were able to install VS 2008 on Win XP Pro without any problem.
Basically I need asp_net compiler to build a web site and make dll and make file, Do you have any other route?
Ray
Hi Ray Go - Yes, it should be possible to install VS 2008 on Windows 7 - I have it installed on my Windows 7 computer currently.
The error you are getting sounds like it might be due to a corrupt download of the setup package that you're installing from. I'd suggest trying to re-download and re-run VS 2008 setup to see if that helps resolve this error.
Aaron,
Thank You. I downloaded a newer professional edition of VS 2008 and installed in Win 7 and it worked .I need to install on other windows 7 machine also . But I can do it later. Your tip helped.
Thank you for collection this information.