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If I install windows 8 what version(s) of the .NET framework will be installed before any auto-updating?
What about after applying any automatic updates?

4 Answers 4

33

By default Windows 8 has .NET 4.5 installed. .NET 4.5 is an in-place upgrade for .NET 4. This means that you can run applications targeting .NET 4 and 4.5 by default on Windows 8. Also .NET 3.5 SP1 is available as a Windows feature in Windows 8. That means that all you have to do is go to Add and Remove Features and just select the .NET 3.5 SP1 feature and you will have .NET 2, .NET 3.0 and .NET 3.5 on your machine.

So in short, without downloading any installers, you have following .NET versions on a Windows 8 machine:

  1. NET 4.5
  2. NET 4.0
  3. NET 3.5 (Need to enable feature)
  4. NET 3.0 (Need to enable feature)
  5. NET 2.0 (Need to enable feature)

(Not sure if you can install .NET 1.1 on Windows 8. It was supported on Windows 7)

Edit: As per Graham Wager, we can install and use .NET 1.1 on Windows 8.

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  • 2
    .NET 1.1 does install and does work (for the application I tried it on at least), but throws up a compatibility warning upon launching the installer. Oct 22, 2012 at 10:10
12

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Windows 8 comes with .net 4.5 advanced services built in. If you install an application which needs .net 3.5 or earlier, it will automatically pull it in .net 3.5 as part of the install process - mine installed it when I was installing paint.net

5

Seems like .NET Framework version 4.5 is already installed as listed here.

Also on this page, under the "Instructions", there is a Note specified which says:

Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 include the .NET Framework 4.5. Therefore, you don't have to install this software on those operating systems.

Typically, it includes these:

  1. .NET 4.5
  2. .NET 4.0
  3. .NET 3.5 (Need to enable this)
  4. .NET 3.0 (Need to enable this)
  5. .NET 2.0 (Need to enable this)

No official information has yet been provided by Microsoft.

0

Be advised....enabling .Net 3.5 from the control panel on a tablet machine such as the Micrsoft Surface pro will not work. To date Microsoft has not addressed this issue.

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  • 4
    Could you provide further details on this? From how I see it, this information is lacking in credibility.
    – Daniel B
    Jul 18, 2014 at 11:49

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