Link to .NET Framework 3.0 release notes with known installation issues

  • Article

I have gotten several questions from customers about how to resolve installation problems with the .NET Framework 3.0 since it was released last year.  In many of these cases, the installation problems and options for workarounds were described in the .NET Framework 3.0 release notes.  However, it looks like some of my blog posts appear earlier in the list of Web search results than these release notes, and in some sample searches that I tried, the release notes do not appear at all.

In an effort to try to improve the discoverability of the setup issues and workarounds listed in the .NET Framework 3.0 release notes, I wanted to provide a link to the release notes on my blog and also summarize some of the issues that are listed in the release notes.

You can find the .NET Framework 3.0 release notes at https://msdn2.microsoft.com/windowsvista/bb188202.aspx.

These release notes include information about the following types of .NET Framework 3.0 setup issues:

  • How to troubleshoot download errors
  • Possible issues that can arise when installing the .NET Framework 3.0 on a system that previously had a beta version of WinFX or the .NET Framework 3.0 installed
  • Install failures related to IIS metabase corruption (this is listed as a beta upgrade issue, but I have heard of this type of issue very often and it can happen both on systems that previously had a 3.0 beta and systems that have never had 3.0)

If you are encountering errors while trying to install the .NET Framework 3.0, I encourage you to take a look at these release notes to see if you are experiencing any of the known issues documented there.  If those workarounds do not help, you can search in the .NET Framework 3.0 setup log files for additional information about the root cause of the failure.  A complete list of .NET Framework 3.0 setup log files is located at https://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2006/10/30/net-framework-3-0-setup-log-files.aspx.

One final note here - the .NET Framework 3.5 installer includes the .NET Framework 3.0 with SP1 as a prerequisite.  If you encounter failures during .NET Framework 3.5 setup during the installation of this 3.0 SP1 prerequisite package, the information in the .NET Framework 3.0 release notes may be helpful to you as well.