.NET Framework Redistributable Package 1.1 Technical Reference

Microsoft Corporation

May 2003

This documentation is provided to you as part of Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003, Visual Basic .NET, Visual C++ .NET, Visual C# .NET, Visual J# .NET and/or the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK version 1.1 (any one of these, a "Microsoft Developer Tool"), specifically for your use in conjunction with the distribution or internal deployment of the Microsoft .NET Framework redistributable file (dotnetfx.exe).

Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property. Please refer to the end user license agreement you received with a Microsoft Developer Tool for information regarding distribution or internal deployment of the dotnetfx.exe.

© 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Summary: Applications and controls written for the .NET Framework version 1.1 require the .NET Framework Redistributable Package version 1.1 to be installed on the computer where the application or control runs. The .NET Framework redistributable package is available as a stand-alone executable file, Dotnetfx.exe. This article describes where to obtain Dotnetfx.exe, and how to use it to deploy .NET Framework applications. (9 printed pages)

Note If you choose to use the Dotnetfx.exe or redistribute it with an application created by you, you must have a validly licensed copy of the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK version 1.1 (or Visual Studio .NET 2003) and any use or distribution of Dotnetfx.exe is subject to the terms of the end user license agreement you received with the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK version 1.1 (or Visual Studio .NET 2003). If you do not have a validly licensed copy of the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK version 1.1 (or Visual Studio .NET 2003), you are not authorized to use or distribute Dotnetfx.exe.

Contents

Introduction
Where to Obtain the .NET Framework Redistributable Package
Dotnetfx.exe Options and Errors
Installing Localized Versions of Dotnetfx.exe
Minimum Configuration Requirements

Introduction

The version 1.1 release of the Microsoft® .NET Framework provides one redistributable installer that contains the common language runtime and Microsoft .NET Framework components that are necessary to run .NET Framework applications. The .NET Framework redistributable is available as a stand-alone executable file, Dotnetfx.exe. The .NET Framework requires a license agreement that gives you specific rights to redistribute Dotnetfx.exe. If you have previously installed Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003, the .NET Framework SDK version 1.1 or downloaded Dotnetfx.exe from the Web, you have accepted the license agreement for Dotnetfx.exe. For the terms of the license agreement, see the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Redistributable EULA.

You can manually launch and install Dotnetfx.exe on a computer, or it can be launched and installed as part of the setup program for a .NET Framework application. Note that administrator privileges are required to install Dotnetfx.exe. If you have previously installed the .NET Framework SDK version 1.1 or Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003, you do not need to install Dotnetfx.exe.

This white paper provides only a technical reference for Dotnetfx.exe. For more information about deploying Dotnetfx.exe, see the .NET Framework 1.1 Deployment Guide. This Web site provides detailed deployment information including white papers that address specific deployment scenarios for .NET Framework SDK version 1.1 users and Visual Studio .NET 2003 users.

There are minimum configuration requirements that must be met in order to install Dotnetfx.exe. For more information about software and hardware requirements and recommendations, see Minimum Configuration Requirements.

Where to Obtain the .NET Framework Redistributable version 1.1 Package

You can download Dotnetfx.exe from the Microsoft Download Center or from the Microsoft Windows Update Web site.

Alternately, you can get the redistributable package on a product CD or DVD. Dotnetfx.exe is available on the .NET Framework SDK version 1.1 CD in the dotNETRedist directory in the CD's root directory. It is available on the Microsoft® Visual Studio® .NET 2003 Prerequisites CD in the dotNetFramework directory, and on the Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET 2003 DVD in the \wcu\dotNetFramework directory.

The .NET Framework SDK page on MSDN has information on how to order these products.

If you need to have users install the .NET Framework 1.1 from the Internet, do not post the .NET Framework Redistributable Package version 1.1; instead direct users to the Microsoft Windows Update Web site.

Dotnefx.exe Options and Errors

The .NET Framework Redistributable Package version 1.1 uses a Windows Installer package that wraps it into the single, self-extracting executable file Dotnetfx.exe. The Dotnetfx.exe executable file launches Install.exe, which performs platform checks, installs Windows Installer 2.0 if necessary, and then launches the Windows Installer package (.msi file).

Table 1 describes the command line options you can specify when installing Dotnetfx.exe. To specify options when installing Dotnetfx.exe, you must pass the options to the Install.exe wrapper using the /c: option.

Syntax

dotnetfx [/q:a] [/c:"Install [/l][/q]"]

Table 1. Command-line options for installing Dotnetfx.exe

You should use the Windows Add/Remove Programs option to uninstall a .NET Framework application that hosts Dotnetfx.exe. This ensures that Dotnetfx.exe will not be uninstalled independently of an application that is dependent on it in order to run.

Usage Examples

The following command installs the Dotnetfx.exe redistributable package.

dotnetfx /c:"install"

Launching a silent installation of Dotnetfx.exe and Language Packs

The following command launches a silent installation of Dotnetfx.exe.

dotnetfx.exe /q:a /c:"install /l /q"

The following command launches a silent installation of langpack.exe (any language pack).

LangPack.exe /q:a /c:"inst /q"

A silent install suppresses the display of all user interface and error messages returned by Dotnetfx.exe and Install.exe, which is contained within Dotnetfx.exe. Specifying the /q:a and /q options for a silent install allows for a standardized user installation experience. Specifying the /l option creates a setup log file, netfx.log, in the %temp% directory where all errors are logged.

Error Codes

Table 2 describes the errors returned by Dotnetfx.exe.

Table 2. Dotnetfx.exe errors

Table 3. Langpack.exe errors

During the installation of Dotnetfx.exe, Microsoft Windows Installer and the Windows operating system can also return errors. Table 3 describes the most common Windows Installer errors. For a complete list of Windows Installer errors, see the Windows Installer documentation.

Table 4. Windows Installer errors

Installing Localized Versions of Dotnetfx.exe

The .NET Framework redistributable (Dotnetfx.exe) is available in 22 language versions. All versions of dotnetfx.exe are the same programmatically, the only difference between each of the 22 versions is the user interface displayed during installation. For example, when installing a Japanese language version of dotnefx.exe on an English language machine all of the installation dialogs and the end user license agreement (EULA) will be in Japanese, but the code itself isn't localized and all dialogs displayed by the .NET Framework will be in English. Therefore if you wish to see installation dialogs in a specific language, you should install the corresponding version of dotnetfx.exe.

In order to have Japanese dialogs displayed by the .NET Framework version 1.1 you will also have to install a corresponding language pack. A .NET Framework version 1.1 language pack only contains localized resources (such as error messages) but changes nothing programmatically in the .NET Framework version 1.1.

There are 21 language packs available for the .NET Framework version 1.1 and all 21 can be installed on the same machine. However, there isn't an English Language pack due to the fact that dotnetfx.exe already has all error codes and messages in English by default.

In every case possible the localized version of dotnetfx.exe and the matching language pack should be installed on localized machines. This means that you should install the dotentfx.exe that has been localized into Japanese as well as the Japanese language pack when installing onto a Japanese machine.

Note When installing a .NET Framework language pack on a computer running the Windows 98 or Windows Me operating system, the system code page and font must support the language pack being installed. There are several options:

• Install the same language pack as the language of Windows. For example, install the Japanese Language Pack on the Japanese version of Windows 98.
• Install a localized version of the language pack on a localized version of Windows, in which the system code page is the same for both languages. For example, install the French Language Pack on the German version of Windows98.
• Install the .NET Framework version 1.1 on any localized version of Windows. If the system code page and font do not support the language of the .NET Framework language pack being installed, dialogs will not display correctly. For example, when installing the Japanese Language Pack on the English version of Windows 98, setup dialogs will not display text correctly.

This limitation applies only to Windows 98 and Windows Me systems. You can install any .NET Framework language pack on any language version of Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0, Windows XP, or the Windows Server 2003 family.

The following table shows all available languages packs.

Minimum Configuration Requirements

This section describes the minimum configuration requirements for a computer where the .NET Framework redistributable package is to be installed. If the minimum requirements are not met, Dotnetfx.exe setup will block the installation of the redistributable package. Specifically, note that you cannot install the .NET Framework redistributable package on a computer running the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system.

Platform and Software Requirements

Minimum requirements

To install Dotnetfx.exe, you must have one of the following operating systems with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 or later installed on your computer:

• Microsoft® Windows® 98
• Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
• Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me)
• Microsoft Windows NT® 4 (Workstation or Server) with Service Pack 6a
• Microsoft Windows 2000 (Professional, Server, or Advanced Server) with the latest Windows Service Pack and critical updates available from the Microsoft Security Web site
• Microsoft Windows XP (Home or Professional)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 family

Recommended software

Depending on your application requirements, you might also need to install one or more of the following:

• MDAC 2.6 or later (MDAC 2.7 Sp1 recommended) for data access, available from Data Access Downloads on MSDN.
• Core WMI for Windows instrumentation.

Note   If the recommended software requirements are not met, Setup will not block installation or warn you of their absence.

Recommended server software

Depending on your application requirements, you might also need the following server software:

• MDAC 2.7 for data on the server, available at Data Access Downloads on MSDN.
• Internet Information Services (IIS) on the server for Windows 2000, Windows XP (Professional), and Windows Server 2003. This is required for using ASP.NET applications.

Hardware Requirements

Table 5. Minimum hardware requirements

* Or the minimum CPU required to run the operating system, whichever is higher.

** Or the minimum RAM required to run the operating system, whichever is higher.

Table 6. Recommended hardware