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I have an application that uses the .NET framework 3.5. I am building this application for a college to help students to study. Most students usually have Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7. (Sorry Mac users! The Mac version will come out in about 6 months) What version of the .NET framework is installed on Windows XP, Vista, and 7; and will my application run on all of those platforms?

skaffman
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Mohit Deshpande
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  • You can build your installer to detect and/or download the appropriate runtime. Given that spread of OSes, as you can see some don't have any framework version, so you don't lose much by targeting the 3.5 framework. – Joe Mar 13 '10 at 15:58
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    Good question, and this website appeared to answer most http://blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2007/03/14/mailbag-what-version-of-the-net-framework-is-included-in-what-version-of-the-os.aspx but now I would love to know which version of .NET is installed when all said windows are *absolutely kept up to date with windows update* ? – v.oddou Mar 17 '14 at 08:15

5 Answers5

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From Wikipedia and MSDN:

.NET Framework 1.1: Windows Server 2003
.NET Framework 2.0: Windows Server 2003 R2
.NET Framework 3.0: Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008
.NET Framework 3.5: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2
.NET Framework 4.0: n/a
.NET Framework 4.5: Windows 8, Windows Server 2012
.NET Framework 4.5.1: Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2
.NET Framework 4.5.2: n/a
.NET Framework 4.6: Windows 10
.NET Framework 4.6.1: Windows 10 v1511
.NET Framework 4.6.2: Windows 10 v1607, Windows Server 2016

.NET Compact Framework 1.0 (SP2): Windows Mobile 5.0
.NET Compact Framework 2.0: Windows Mobile 6.0

From other SO questions:

If you want to be certain that you application runs on all of these, you will have to install the framework yourself - use SmallestDotNet.com for this.

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Oded
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  • Not by default (for XP and SP2). You will need to get the framework installed on the client machines. – Oded Mar 13 '10 at 17:07
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    Just for a sense of completeness: XP SP3 - not installed – Tim Joseph Nov 23 '10 at 03:39
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    I found a pretty good link here that says otherwise: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2007/03/14/mailbag-what-version-of-the-net-framework-is-included-in-what-version-of-the-os.aspx notably XP SP1 contains v1.0 etc. – v.oddou Mar 17 '14 at 08:14
  • Misrosoft says :"•On Windows 7 systems, the .NET Framework requires Windows 7 SP1. If you are on Windows 7 and have not yet installed Service Pack 1, you will need to do so before installing the .NET Framework." https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8z6watww(v=vs.110).aspx But if 3.5 if installed by default in Windows 7, this cannot be completely true? – Rado Mar 02 '16 at 13:37
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I would like to point out, that Windows XP SP3 does NOT have .NET Framework 3.5 (Full profile) installed. I just found out and was scared :-0

Marcel
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  • how about release dates ? maybe win sp3 was out before framework 3.5 got released no ? Howver maybe if updated through windows update the version 3.5 may get installed, I'd like to know about that. – v.oddou Mar 17 '14 at 08:17
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Have a look at this similar question 'Is there a way to determine the .NET Framework version from the command line?' in which I posted an answer here. In that answer there is a link to the article on CodeProject that does exactly that...

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t0mm13b
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As you're going to install .NET Framework with your application you may also find .NET Client Profile useful. It's a small version of framework that can be bundled with your distribution.

http://blogs.windowsclient.net/trickster92/archive/2008/05/21/introducing-the-net-framework-client-profile.aspx

Fedor
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The version of .NET framework could be a little different on each computer based on what software they have already installed.

A similar question was asked here on Stackoverflow and one of the responses that might be helpful might be ..... to take a look at this article.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/aa731542.aspx

Bactos
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