Check if .NET 2.0 is properly installed

Question

Is there anyway i can check if .NET 2.0 is installed without any errors?

Answer 1

The answer here led me seriously astray... i found microsoft's own documentation: .NET Framework 2.0 Redistributable Package Reference: Detecting Installed .NET Framework 2.0

This documentation states:

The Setup.exe bootstrapper should use the following registry key to detect the .NET Framework version 2.0.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v2.0.50727

It then verifies the existence of the entry value:

Install (DWORD value = 1)

Note The same registry key will be checked for all versions of Dotnetfx.exe regardless of language. Therefore, if you want to display dialogs in a specific language you should use the corresponding version of Dotnetfx.exe. You do not need to make any changes to the settings.ini file when deciding which version of Dotnetfx.exe to use.

works like a charm... i realize this question and answer is 2 years old or more... but i got here from a search engine, and this is here for the next person who does the same... hope this helps -ck

Answer 2

This blog post describes two options for checking for a .NET installation, as well as retrieving versioning information.

The second option (using CorBindToRuntime) will fail if the .NET installation cannot be loaded. This might help you determine if there are any errors in the install - or at least whether the framework loads properly.

Answer 3

If you're using ClickOnce as your publishing method, you can click on the "Prerequisites" button in the "Publish" tab of the project's properties and check the box for ".Net Framework 2.0". This will make sure that framework is installed before the program installs, and can fetch and install the framework if necessary, too.

In regular VS Setup Projects, right-click on the setup project, chose View->Launch Conditions and add it as a condition. Visual Studio should have added one for you that matches the target platform of the project.