.NET Framework 2.0 Redistributable Package Reference

Microsoft Corporation

March 2006

Applies to:
   Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0

Summary: Applications and controls written for the .NET Framework version 2.0 require the .NET Framework Redistributable Package version 2.0 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 document describes where to obtain Dotnetfx.exe, and how to use it to deploy .NET Framework applications. This document provides only a technical reference for Dotnetfx.exe, and specific information regarding manual installation of dotnetfx.exe, resulting error, and detection logic. For general information about deploying Dotnetfx.exe, see the .NET Framework 2.0 Deployment Guide. (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 valid licensed copy of the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK version 2.0 (or Visual Studio 2005) 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 2.0, or Visual Studio. If you do not have a validly licensed copy of the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK version 2.0, or Visual Studio, you are not authorized to use or distribute Dotnetfx.exe.

Introduction
Obtain the .NET Framework Redistributable Version 2.0 Package
Detecting Installed .NET Framework 2.0
Detecting Installed .NET Framework 2.0 Language Packs
Installation Command Syntax and Corresponding Log Files
Dotnetfx.exe Error Codes
Installing Localized Versions of Dotnetfx.exe
Minimum Configuration Requirements

The version 2.0 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 2005, the .NET Framework SDK version 2.0 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 2.0 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 2.0 or Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, you do not need to install Dotnetfx.exe.

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 the Minimum Configuration Requirements.

You can download Dotnetfx.exe from MSDN Online or from the Microsoft Windows Update Web site.

Alternately, you can get the redistributable package on a Microsoft .NET Framework DVD. The redistributable packages for .NET Framework 2.0 are available on the DVD in the directory

<LANGUAGE_CODE>\Runtime\dotnetfx.exe

where <LANGUAGE_CODE> represents locale language, or from Disc 1 of the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 in the \wcu\dotNetFramework directory.

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

The Setup.exe bootstrapper should use the following registry key to detect the .NET Framework version 2.0.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v2.0.50727

It then verifies the existence of the entry value:

Install (DWORD value = 1)

Note The same registry key will be checked for all versions of Dotnetfx.exe regardless of language. Therefore, if you want to display dialogs in a specific language you should use the corresponding version of Dotnetfx.exe. You do not need to make any changes to the settings.ini file when deciding which version of Dotnetfx.exe to use.

With the .NET Framework 2.0 and the J# redistributable package 2.0, a centralized registry hive is created during setup to indicate information about the versions of the .NET Framework and J# redistributable package installed on a machine.

Table 1 lists each of the products along with the registry values that can be checked to determine whether or not the product is installed on a given machine:

Table 1. .NET Framework Registry Locations

Table 2. Visual J# Registry Locations

Note In Table 2, the [LCID] portion of the key names represents a 4-digit number that is the language code for the language pack in question. For example, the language code for English is 1033 and the language code for Japanese is 1041.

Table 3. Command syntax and log files

The following is an example entry in dd_netfx20MSIxxxx.txt that indicates the return code from Windows Installer:

MSI (c) (90:9C): MainEngineThread is returning 0

Table 4 describes the errors returned by Dotnetfx.exe.

Table 4. Dotnetfx.exe errors

Table 5. Langpack.exe errors

During the installation of Dotnetfx.exe, Microsoft Windows Installer and the Windows operating system can also return errors. Table 6 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

Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 has been localized into many languages. For additional information, see Installing Localized Versions of the .NET Framework 2.0.

For information on minimum and recommended platform requirements see the .NET Framework 2.0 Redistributable Prerequisites in the .NET Framework Deployment Guide.