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By doing a bit of research I found out that removing .NET 4.5 can cause Windows Server 2012 to malfunction. I was curious if it would also cause problems when .NET 3.5 and .NET 4 (not 4.5!) are installed and .NET 4.5 is deleted?

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    You can remove the Windows Feature like any other Windows Feature so, it is indeed possible, to run Windows Server 2012 without the .NET Framework.
    – Ramhound
    Aug 11, 2014 at 11:28
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    "By doing a bit of research I found out that removing .NET 4.5 can cause Windows Server 2012 to malfunction" Can you cite a reference that your research uncovered? In what ways do you believe it would it "malfunction"? What is the actual problem that you're trying to solve? Aug 11, 2014 at 13:25

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If you want to know what exactly can go wrong with uninstalling .NET 4.5, just run:

Remove-WindowsFeature Net-Framework-45-Features –WhatIf

And you'll be provided with information "what if?" that is features and roles that will be uninstalled too. Most of them are GUI interfaces of Windows Server 2012. It can also be quite problematic to go to Server Core server mode and then trying to go back to at least Minimal Server Interface or to GUI mode without .NET 4.5 Framework.

Article from TechNet: Removing .NET Framework 4.5/4.5.1 removes Windows 2012/2012R2 UI and other features

Yet, you can force applications to run with .NET 3.5. You must remember that .NET 3.5 is optional for Windows Server, so it is possible to install it but it's not up there as a standard (on the other hand, .NET 4.5 is installed with MS Windows Server 2012).

Also see: .NET Framework 4.5 is default and .NET Framework 3.5 is optional

Either way .NET 3.5 and 4.0 won't interfere with each other (I understand that you want to run .NET 4.0 only if required by application?). Nevertheless, I can't understand why would you like to abandon .NET 4.5 and add .NET 3.5 and 4.0 in place of that.

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