.NET Framework 3.5 Deployment Guide for Application Developers

The Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.5 provides a redistributable installer that also contains service packs and cumulative updates for the .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.0.

This topic provides explains how to redistribute the .NET Framework with your applications. It contains the following sections:

• Available Formats

• Where to Obtain the .NET Framework 3.5 Redistributable Package

• Installation Requirements

• Installing the .NET Framework Manually

• Chaining the Redistributable Package in Application Setup

• Installing the .NET Framework 3.5 for Web Applications

• Detecting the .NET Framework 3.5

• Command-Line Options

• Error Codes

• Appendix: .NET Framework 3.5 Components

• Appendix: Setup Examples

Available Formats

The .NET Framework 3.5 redistributable package is available in two formats:

• dotnetfx35.exe  This is a stand-alone executable file that contains all the components that are required to deploy to 32-bit and 64-bit platforms on all supporting operating systems. This executable does not contain language packs; by default, it downloads and installs the language pack that matches the language of the user's operating system. The .NET Framework version 3.5 language packs are available as separate per-language stand-alone executable files from the Microsoft Download Center.

• dotnetfx35setup.exe  This is a lightweight bootstrapper that downloads required components from the Web during setup. This executable does not contain any .NET Framework version 3.5 components; it detects, downloads, and installs only required components from the Web. The bootstrapper also downloads and installs the language pack that matches the language of the user’s operating system. Stand-alone language packs can be used to install additional language support.

You can use either package on both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms on all supporting operating systems.

You can manually launch and install the redistributable on a computer, or launch and install it as part of the setup program for a .NET Framework 3.5 application.

Where to Obtain the .NET Framework 3.5 Redistributable Package

You can download the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 redistributable package from the Microsoft Download Center. The Download button at the top of the page installs the bootstrapper (dotNetFx35setup.exe). To download the full installation package, scroll down to the Full Package link at the bottom of the page.

Installation Requirements

This section summarizes the software and hardware requirements for installing the .NET Framework 3.5. If the minimum requirements are not met, the .NET Framework setup process stops the installation.

For a detailed list of hardware and software requirements, see System Requirements for Version 3.5.

Software Requirements

The .NET Framework 3.5 requires one of the following operating systems on the target computer:

• Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional, both with Service Pack 2 or later.

• Windows Server 2003 family with Service Pack 1 or later.

• Windows Vista.

• Windows Server 2008.

  Note

  The .NET Framework 3.5 supports IA64 only on Microsoft Windows Server 2008.

• Windows 7 family

• Windows 8

Hardware Requirements

The following table lists the CPU and RAM requirements for running the .NET Framework 3.5.

Installing the .NET Framework Manually

In some situations, it might be impractical for you to automatically install the .NET Framework 3.5 with your application. In that case, you can have users install the .NET Framework themselves from the Microsoft Download Center. In your setup process, provide instructions for how users can locate and install the .NET Framework.

Chaining the Redistributable Package in Application Setup

The .NET Framework 3.5 provides three ways to include ("chain") the .NET Framework setup process into your application's setup process:

• Option 1. Let the .NET Framework setup process decide which components are required and download and install only the required components from the Web.

  To let the .NET Framework setup process detect, download, and install only the required components, use the dotnetfx35setup.exe package. To chain the .NET Framework setup process, add the following command to your application's setup process:

  dotnetfx35setup.exe /q /norestart

• Option 2. Include the complete set of .NET Framework files with your redistribution media so that users do not have to download any additional files from the Web during setup.

  If you want to include all the components in the .NET Framework setup process, use the full stand-alone executable (dotnetfx35.exe). This package includes components that are required to install the .NET Framework 3.5 on x86, x64, and IA64 computers on any supported operating systems. Use this package if space and download time is not an issue for your application deployment. To chain the .NET Framework setup process, use the following command:

  dotnetfx35.exe /q /norestart

• Option 3. Include the most commonly required components for your users, and let the .NET Framework setup process detect any missing components and download them from the Web. This scenario is best if you have a specific platform, operating system, or user system configuration that you are deploying your application to.

  To perform this installation, you must first obtain the full stand-alone executable and extract the files by using the following command:

  dotnetfx35.exe /x extract-location

  After you extract the files, you will see a file and folder structure with the list of files for each component in the .NET Framework 3.5, as shown in the Appendix of this document.

  To deploy the .NET Framework 3.5, include the appropriate components in the folder structure that is created by the extraction process, and chain them in the .NET Framework bootstrapper setup by using the following command:

  dotnetfx35setup.exe /q /norestart

  You can see two examples of what to include in your layout in the Appendix of this document.

Regardless of which mode you choose, to chain the .NET Framework 3.5 installation process, run the redistributable from the command line and use the /q and /norestart command-line options.

Installing the .NET Framework 3.5 for Web Applications

Web-based applications that rely on .NET Framework 3.5 features might require the .NET Framework to be downloaded and installed on the user's computer. You can determine whether the .NET Framework 3.5 is installed on the user's computer by following the instructions in the next section. If the correct version of the .NET Framework is not installed, you can direct users to the Microsoft Download Center to obtain the .NET Framework 3.5 package.

Detecting the .NET Framework 3.5

You can detect whether the .NET Framework 3.5 is already installed by reading a registry key or by querying the user-agent string in Internet Explorer.

Reading Registry Keys

The .NET Framework 3.5 installer writes registry keys when installation has finished successfully. You can test whether.NET Framework 3.5 is installed by checking the registry keys listed in the following table.

Reading the User-Agent String in a Browser

When the .NET Framework 3.5 is installed on a computer, the .NET Framework 3.5 version number appears as part of the user-agent string that is reported in browser headers. The following example shows a sample page that uses JavaScript to detect and report whether the .NET Framework 3.5 is installed.

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Test for .NET Framework 3.5</title>
    <meta HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
    <script type="text/JavaScript">
    <!--
    var NETFX3RuntimeVersion = "3.5.21022";
    
    function body_onload()
    {
      var result = document.getElementById("result");
      if (HasRuntimeVersion(NETFX3RuntimeVersion))
      {
          result.innerHTML = "This machine has the correct version of the .NET Framework 3.5 runtime: " 
          + NETFX3RuntimeVersion + "." 
          + "\n\nThis machine's userAgent string is: " 
          + navigator.userAgent + ".";
      } 
      else
      {
        result.innerHTML = "The .NET Framework version 3.5 is not installed on this computer.<br/>"
            + "Click <a href='https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=96339'"
            + " here</a> to get the .NET Framework 3.5 now.";}
    }
    
    //
    // Retrieve the version from the user agent string and compare with specified version.
    //
    function HasRuntimeVersion(versionToCheck)
    {
      var userAgentString = 
           navigator.userAgent.match(/.NET CLR 3.5.[0-9]+/g);
      if (userAgentString != null)
      {
        var i;
        for (i = 0; i < userAgentString.length; ++i)
        {
          if (CompareVersions(GetVersion(versionToCheck), 
                GetVersion(userAgentString[i])) <= 0)
            return true;
        }
      }
      return false;
    }

    //
    // Extract the numeric part of the version string.
    //
    function GetVersion(versionString)
    {
      var numericString = versionString.match(/([0-9])\.([0-9])\.([0-9])/i);
      return numericString.slice(1);
    }

    //
    // Compare the version strings by converting them to numeric format.
    //
    function CompareVersions(version1, version2)
    {
      for (i = 0; i < version1.length; ++i)
      {
        var number1 = new Number(version1[i]);
        var number2 = new Number(version2[i]);

        if (number1 < number2)
          return -1;
        if (number1 > number2)
          return 1;
      }
      return 0;
    }
    
    -->
    </script>
  </head>
  
  <body onload="body_onload();">
    <div id="result" ></div>
  </body>
</html>

If the search for the string ".NET Framework 3.5" version is successful, the following message is displayed:

This machine has the correct version of the .NET Framework 3.5 runtime: 3.5.28015.00.
This machine's userAgent string is: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.28015.00).

(The details of the user agent string vary slightly according to the browser and browser version that is being used to test for the .NET Framework.)

If the .NET Framework 3.5 is not installed, the following message is displayed:

The .NET Framework version 3.5 is not installed on this computer.
Click here to get the .NET Framework 3.5 now.

Command-Line Options

The following table lists options that you can specify when you run the .NET Framework 3.5 redistributable installer from the command line.

Error Codes

The following table lists error codes that can be returned by the .NET Framework 3.5 redistributable installation program. The error codes are the same for all versions of the installer.

Appendix

In the tables provided in this appendix, the operating systems have been abbreviated as follows:

• XP = Windows XP

• Vista = Windows Vista

• W2K3 = Windows Server 2003

• W2K8 = Windows Server 2008

.NET Framework 3.5 Components

The following table lists the components for the .NET Framework version 3.5.

Setup Examples

The following examples list the files that you have to include in your setup media for two different installation scenarios.

Example 1

The following table lists the files that you must include in your setup media layout if you are deploying to Windows XP or Windows Vista. The file list assumes that users are installing only the x86 version, and that they have already installed the .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 and 3.0 SP1 (on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003) or the cumulative update (on Windows Vista).

Example 2

The following table lists the files that you must include in your media layout if you are deploying to Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003 SP1 on x86 and x64 computers. The file list assumes that users already have the .NET Framework version 2.0 SP1 installed.

See Also

Concepts

.NET Framework 3.5 Deployment Guide for Administrators