Targeting .NET Framework 4.5 via Visual Studio 2010

Question

Today I installed the .NET Framework 4.5 on my machine expecting to be able to use it from Visual Studio 2010, since it's just a minor update that should't pose problems for Visual Studio 2010. Unfortunately I am not, even manually removing certain 4.0 and adding the corresponding 4.5 assemblies resulted in the original 4.0 assemblies still being referenced in the project.

Is it possible to target version 4.5 from Visual Studio 2010 and if yes, how? I'd really like to use the ribbons...

You must upgrade to Visual Studio 2012 for .NET v4.5 support. — Arran, Sep 12 '12 at 14:17
I came to know about this limitation when I was trying to use System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Run() method in a VS 2010 console application. This method doesn't show up on Task class if your project is targeting .Net framework 4.0 and then you realize that VS2010 can not target .Net framework 4.5 if you want. — RBT, Feb 13 '16 at 02:41

score 197 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 12 '12 at 14:33

197

Each version of Visual Studio prior to Visual Studio 2010 is tied to a specific .NET framework. (VS2008 is .NET 3.5, VS2005 is .NET 2.0, VS2003 is .NET1.1) Visual Studio 2010 and beyond allow for targeting of prior framework versions but cannot be used for future releases. You must use Visual Studio 2012 in order to utilize .NET 4.5.

answered Sep 12 '12 at 14:33

Brad S

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Not entirely true -- .NET 3.0 was released between VS versions, and could be used in VS2005. – Sly Gryphon Jun 06 '13 at 01:45
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True, but only by way of an extension. It wasn't built into VS 2005 from the beginning (and, as such, not fully optimized). – thefellow3j Mar 14 '14 at 21:13
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What a conundrum: migrate to vs2012+ to utilize a nicety of .net 4.5 at the cost of losing the beloved vs2010 Setup Project for deploying msi installers... "upgrade" feels more like a sidegrade... – ecoe Nov 11 '14 at 13:53
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@ecoe - There is a VS 2013 extension that brings back the Setup & Deployment project type: https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/9abe329c-9bba-44a1-be59-0fbf6151054d – ajawad987 Jul 01 '15 at 19:52
And don't forget to mention horrendous search in Visual studio above 2010 – AaA May 12 '16 at 09:43
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This is incorrect. You do not have to upgrade to use this feature. All you need to do is add a new reference, then browse to the .NET 4.5 folder: C:\Program Files(x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\\.Net Framework\4.5. You will find the reference in there. Just add it and it works – Hermes Trismegistus Jun 09 '16 at 11:17
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@HermesTrismegistus - What "feature" are you referring to, and which of the items in that `...\4.5` folder do we add? – Jeff Roe Nov 25 '16 at 17:03
@JeffRoe sorry for the delay. You can add whichever namespace assembly contains the method you need. I was working with ZIP files and needed to add the "System.IO.Compression" dll. – Hermes Trismegistus Jan 11 '17 at 14:32
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@HermesTrismegistus in VS 2010 I click "Target Framework=Install Other Frameworks" and it takes me to a website https://www.microsoft.com/net/download/visual-studio-sdks It does not let me navigate to any folder. What should i do. i must be able to target 4.5 from VS 2010. Tks. – Echeban Nov 01 '17 at 18:46
I only have a v3.0 and v3.5 directory, not a v4.0 or 4.5 directory. How do I get the necessary files placed there? In ```C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v4.5``` – PatS Feb 18 '19 at 00:37

score 69 · Answer 2 · edited May 08 '13 at 08:49

There are pretty limited scenarios that I can think of where this would be useful, but let's assume you can't get funds to purchase VS2012 or something to that effect. If that's the case and you have Windows 7+ and VS 2010 you may be able to use the following hack I put together which seems to work (but I haven't fully deployed an application using this method yet).

Backup your project file!!!
Download and install the Windows 8 SDK which includes the .NET 4.5 SDK.
Open your project in VS2010.

Create a text file in your project named Compile_4_5_CSharp.targets with the following contents. (Or just download it here - Make sure to remove the ".txt" extension from the file name):

<Project DefaultTargets="Build"
 xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

    <!-- Change the target framework to 4.5 if using the ".NET 4.5" configuration -->
    <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '.NET 4.5' ">
        <DefineConstants Condition="'$(DefineConstants)'==''">
            TARGETTING_FX_4_5
        </DefineConstants>
        <DefineConstants Condition="'$(DefineConstants)'!='' and '$(DefineConstants)'!='TARGETTING_FX_4_5'">
            $(DefineConstants);TARGETTING_FX_4_5
        </DefineConstants>
        <PlatformTarget Condition="'$(PlatformTarget)'!=''"/>
        <TargetFrameworkVersion>v4.5</TargetFrameworkVersion>
    </PropertyGroup>

    <!-- Import the standard C# targets -->
    <Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />

    <!-- Add .NET 4.5 as an available platform -->
    <PropertyGroup>
       <AvailablePlatforms>$(AvailablePlatforms),.NET 4.5</AvailablePlatforms>
    </PropertyGroup>
</Project>

Unload your project (right click -> unload).
Edit the project file (right click -> Edit *.csproj).

Make the following changes in the project file:

a. Replace the default Microsoft.CSharp.targets with the target file created in step 4

<!-- Old Import Entry -->
<!-- <Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" /> -->

<!-- New Import Entry -->
<Import Project="Compile_4_5_CSharp.targets" />

b. Change the default platform to .NET 4.5

<!-- Old default platform entry -->
<!-- <Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">AnyCPU</Platform> -->

<!-- New default platform entry -->
<Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">.NET 4.5</Platform>

c. Add AnyCPU platform to allow targeting other frameworks as specified in the project properties. This should be added just before the first <ItemGroup> tag in the file

<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Platform)' == 'AnyCPU'">
    <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
</PropertyGroup>

.
.
.
<ItemGroup>
.
.
.

Save your changes and close the *.csproj file.
Reload your project (right click -> Reload Project).
In the configuration manager (Build -> Configuration Manager) make sure the ".NET 4.5" platform is selected for your project.
Still in the configuration manager, create a new solution platform for ".NET 4.5" (you can base it off "Any CPU") and make sure ".NET 4.5" is selected for the solution.
Build your project and check for errors.
Assuming the build completed you can verify that you are indeed targeting 4.5 by adding a reference to a 4.5 specific class to your source code:
```
using System;
using System.Text;

namespace testing
{
    using net45check = System.Reflection.ReflectionContext;
}
```
When you compile using the ".NET 4.5" platform the build should succeed. When you compile under the "Any CPU" platform you should get a compiler error:
```
Error 6: The type or namespace name 'ReflectionContext' does not exist in
the namespace 'System.Reflection' (are you missing an assembly reference?)
```

this is krazy, even if it worked, would UI elements like ribbon designer work without masses of xaml and other errors? srsly just upgrade. — Anonymous Type, Nov 18 '13 at 23:01
This indeed works. But I'm just using it so I can keep running Moles on VS2010 after installing .NET Framework 4.5.1. — Conrad Clark, Mar 12 '14 at 13:23
In addition to David Woodward's answer, I added: `bin\` to the first PropertyGroup, when the below error occurred: The OutputPath property is not set for project 'project name'. — mparkuk, Jan 16 '14 at 16:18
I was unable to figure out how to successfully do step 11, "...create a new solution platform...", but I found that the instructions were successful overall if step 11 is ignored. — Tony Pulokas, Nov 21 '15 at 01:34

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 29 '14 at 10:00

FYI, if you want to create an Installer package in VS2010, unfortunately it only targets .NET 4. To work around this, you have to add NET 4.5 as a launch condition.

Add the following in to the Launch Conditions of the installer (Right click, View, Launch Conditions).

In "Search Target Machine", right click and select "Add Registry Search".

Property: REGISTRYVALUE1
RegKey: Software\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v4\Full
Root: vsdrrHKLM
Value: Release

Add new "Launch Condition":

Condition: REGISTRYVALUE1>="#378389"
InstallUrl: http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=30653
Message: Setup requires .NET Framework 4.5 to be installed.

Where:

378389 = .NET Framework 4.5

378675 = .NET Framework 4.5.1 installed with Windows 8.1

378758 = .NET Framework 4.5.1 installed on Windows 8, Windows 7 SP1, or Windows Vista SP2

379893 = .NET Framework 4.5.2

Launch condition reference: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/xxyh2e6a(v=vs.100).aspx

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 01 '15 at 20:54

I have been struggling with VS2010/DNFW 4.5 integration and have finally got this working. Starting in VS 2008, a cache of assemblies was introduced that is used by Visual Studio called the "Referenced Assemblies". This file cache for VS 2010 is located at \Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework.NetFramework\v4.0. Visual Studio loads framework assemblies from this location instead of from the framework installation directory. When Microsoft says that VS 2010 does not support DNFW 4.5 what they mean is that this directory does not get updated when DNFW 4.5 is installed. Once you have replace the files in this location with the updated DNFW 4.5 files, you will find that VS 2010 will happily function with DNFW 4.5.

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 09 '16 at 11:18

2

From another search. Worked for me!

"You can use Visual Studio 2010 and it does support it, provided your OS supports .NET 4.5.

Right click on your solution to add a reference (as you do). When the dialog box shows, select browse, then navigate to the following folder:

C:\Program Files(x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.Net Framework\4.5

You will find it there."

answered Jun 09 '16 at 11:18

Hermes Trismegistus

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In the sentence "You will find it there", what is "it"? Which file in that folder do we select? Will one of them let us target .net 4.5 in VS 2010? – Jeff Roe Nov 25 '16 at 17:16
You will find the namespace assemblies. You can add whichever one you want. For example, I needed to use a method for working with ZIP files. So I found the dll "System.IO.Compression.dll" and added it to my project. Then I could explicitly list the namespace in my code and use the methods I needed. – Hermes Trismegistus Jan 11 '17 at 14:30
2

This doesn't work for me. If you remove your reference to, say, System, and then browse to the .Net 4.5 System.dll and add that as a reference, VS is still picks the 4.0 System.dll Capt Nasty's answer on this page works for me, e.g. copy System.dll from C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.6 and drop it on top of System.dll in C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0. Note though that this is a nasty hack and may have unintended consequences. – Jinlye Aug 29 '17 at 14:33

Targeting .NET Framework 4.5 via Visual Studio 2010

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