CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.netbuild
Piranha
Piranha

Reputation: 919

What .NET version to choose to avoid installing another framework?

what .NET target framework build should I choose when I don't want to install additional .NET framework versions on Windows XP SP3 / Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10?

All of them are delivered with a .NET version.

The reason is this: The majority of my target audience has nearly no experience with computers so the app should work out of the box without the requirement of installing a additional .NET framework.

The .NET version for me doesn't matter because I only use basic stuff that has been in .NET since v. 1.1

Windows XP compatibility is nice to have but optional.

I already thought about making a little stub in C++ that only checks for installed .NET and extracts and starts the correct build. But this is only my fallback solution if there is no other way to do this (Would this work btw.?).

TL;DR: I don't want to have "You need to install .NET X.Y to run this application" pop up for my customers.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1094

Answers (6)

Wolfie
Wolfie

Reputation: 1809

Your answer will come from your demographic.

As stated earlier:
XP is <=4.0 with 1.0 stock
Vista 3.0 stock
Win 7+ 4.0 stock

So, there is NO .NET you can target that will be on all the OS's you listed. Do not make the mistake of targeting toward the least common OS as a minimum.

What you need to do is do a demographic study on your likely customer base. What OS do they use most? If most of them are on Vista, then target 3.0 and let the others install a framework. If most are on Win 7, target 4.0 and let the others install a framework. Etc. By targeting the framework that is in use by the majority of your customer base, you reduce the likelihood of someone needing to install a framework. You can't eliminate it. Just focus on the majority and provide clear instructions for the minority.

Upvotes: 1

PMF
PMF

Reputation: 17298

As the already linked Wikipedia-Page suggests, there's no general solution for this problem. When you do not want to ship the installer with your application, it won't work out-of-the box on all versions of windows.

XP comes with 1.0 pre-installed, but that is very old and I would avoid still using it, so there an installation of 2, 3 or 4 is necessary. Vista comes with 3.0 pre-installed, but Win 8 and Win 10 only have .NET 4.0 or 4.5 pre-installed. So if you target the 3.0 framework, users of Win 8 or Win 10 need to install the package manually (it's just a few clicks, but they're needed).

XP only supports up to 4.0, any newer frameworks won't install there.

Upvotes: 3

Lance
Lance

Reputation: 852

Use .Net Framework 4.0 (supported on XP) and install it before install your programm.

Windows XP Home and Professional SP3 includes the MSI-based .NET Framework 1.1 + SP1 .NET Framework is included in what version of the OS

Upvotes: 1

MaddestHatter
MaddestHatter

Reputation: 26

There are a number of ways you can include the .NET framework installer with your deployed application. Generally speaking unless you use ClickOnce in Visual Studio, you will need an external package. Two such packages are the WIX toolset and the InstallShield package. The limited version of InstallShield comes with some versions of Visual Studio. In both cases you can choose to create an installer that will first install the pre-requisite .NET framework:

http://wixtoolset.org/

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn531020.aspx

Upvotes: 1

nozzleman
nozzleman

Reputation: 9669

.NET v3.0 is included in Windows Vista. I would not recommend supporting WIN XP anymore.

If you want to support XP anyways, you could still go vor 3.0 since it is also available for XP SP2 upwards. But in those cases, users might have to update/install on their own, since im not sure if it is preinstalled with any XP Version at all.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework#Versions for more information.

Depending on how you deliver your app, building a simple WIX Bootstrapper might be an option. Also, as far as I know, Click Once Installers also have the ability to install the required .NET Version if it is not present on the target maschine.

Upvotes: 0

Ievgen Baida
Ievgen Baida

Reputation: 21

According to information from wikipedia:

If Windows XP support is optional you can go for .NET Framework 3.0 which is preinstalled in Windows Vista and later.

Edit:

In this MSDN article it says that there is no .NET Framework preinstalled in Windows XP.

Upvotes: 1

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