The .NET 3.0 SDK is Different

  • Article

And Now for Something Completely Different...

Today I was doing some system maintenance and noticed something that I wanted to point out to y'all. When I installed the .NET SDK v1.1, In the control panel, I got a .NET SDK v1.1 item in the "Add/Remove Programs" list on my WinXP machine. When I installed the .NET SDK v2.0, same thing. The .NET SDK v3.0 is different. It is part of the Windows Platform SDK, and so it shows up differently in the control panel applet. (**NB: On Vista, the thing formerly known as "Add/Remove Programs" is now called "Programs and Features".) See below. Keep this in mind when reviewing and maintaining your systems. Also remember that just because you have installed the Windows SDK, does not mean you have installed the .NET SDK - the .NET SDK is an optional part of the Windows SDK, like many other pieces of the Windows SDK.

Add/Remove Programs showing .NET SDK 3.0

Also keep in mind that every install of Windows Vista includes the .NET 3.0 runtime - this is the thing that allows you to run applications built with .NET 3.0 SDK. Such apps depend upon the .NET 3.0 runtime. That .NET 3.0 runtime is part of Windows Vista. So you won't see anything like ".NET 3.0 runtime" in the control panel on Windows Vista machines. On versions of Windows prior to Windows Vista, like Windows XP, you will need to install the .NET 3.0 runtime components in order to run applications that depend on the .NET 3.0 runtime, and you will see something like ".NET 3.0 runtime" in the Add/Remove Programs applet.