I am writing a custom installer in C#.
Can you tell me an easy way to check if the machine has .NET version installed [even 2.0].
In cases where it is not installed, my app doesn't even start.
Thanks
MSDN has a blog post with sample code to detect if .NET 3 is installed.
[Edit: As mentioned by Stephen Clearly, the author of the blog post also released a tool that can be easily wrapped in a custom installer (and supports all .NET versions)]
Otherwise:
You could always use the file system and check in the %systemroot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework folder.
This will tell you if the following release versions of .NET are installed
v3.5
v3.0
v2.0.50727
v1.1.4322
v1.0.3705
I don't know what is your custom installer, but you could use a Setup and Deployment Project in Visual Studio where you can define .NET Framework launch condition.
Related
Having a frustrating issue with something on my windows 10 PC updating my DotNet SDK version from 6.0.102 to 6.0.103. This is a problem as one of the software projects I work on is the hard locked to certain SDK versions.
Does visual studio code automatically update this or is it something else? Either way it would be good to know a way to turn it off.
Visual Studio Code does not update .NET SDK version in your system, since it is a pure code editor with extension support and does not mess up with other components and applications in the computer.
However, these can update your .NET SDK version:
Updating Visual Studio: Unlike VSCode, Visual Studio manages other components in the computer and may update .NET SDK version as you update Visual Studio.
Microsoft Update: .NET Runtime and SDK installations may be updated automatically via Microsoft Update if you use Windows and this switch is On in your Windows Update Advanced Settings:
Fixing SDK Version
There is a way to fix which SDK version is used by the compiler by adding a global.json file on the project or solution directory with the correct SDK version:
{
"sdk": {
"version": "6.0.102"
}
}
If you add the file in the root directory, the file will be taken into consideration for all projects in that directory and also in sub-directories. With this method, you can still use older SDK versions if they exists in your system.
For more info: Select the .NET version to use
.NET SDK Versioning
.NET SDK uses a special versioning. According to that, there should be no difference between version 6.0.102 and 6.0.103 other than bugfixes. Therefore, it would be a nice idea to reconsider the SDK version coupling even in patch versions such as the example versions you provided.
For more info: Overview of how .NET is versioned
I created a setup project that has as required software .NET 4.5. Right now if I don't have installed .net 4.5 the installation will start with installing .net framework first. I would like to avoid this behavior and to receive directly an error message saying that I don't have installed .net version on my computer. Is that possible?
Thank you in advance.
Regards,
Vlad
It sounds like you have enabled the .NET 4.5 prerequisite. Prerequisites are designed to check the machine and conditionally install a redistributable before the main installation begins.
The flip side of this is a Launch Condition, at least in a basic MSI project. Use a System Search to detect whether .NET 4.5 is present (feel free to edit the .NET 4.5 prerequisite to get an idea what to look for, or just research it yourself), and add a Launch Condition with the message you want to show.
It's actually a really good idea to set up the Launch Condition even if you are including the prerequisite, just in case someone launches the .msi file without going through setup.exe's prerequisite checks. And for your case, where you don't want to offer the automatic installation, just stop including the prerequisite.
When I try to do it I get the error "The application requires .NET Framework 3.5 SP1." I have .NET 4.0, how do I install 3.5 SP1? Can I have both?
Feel free to install all versions of .Net. They will not interfere with each other!
For adding dependencies to your project I recommend NuGet. Really handy and makes the project clean by adding references into it instead of requiring additional installation packages.
.Net 4.0 projects are capable of using .Net 2.0, .Net 3.0 and .Net 3.5 libraries. But note that projects running under ".Net 4.0 Client Profile" can have problems doing this, and you only get a misleading error when attempting to run the project. From within Visual Studio everything seems right.
Just like Tedd Hansen says you can sure have as many .NET versions as you want in your computer for it creates no conflict at all. I take it you are just trying to install something. If that's the case then you can always use this link to download the bootstrapper that will determine the right 3.5 verison for you (x86 or x64) and download and install it.
If you are developing an application you can change the target framework of the project by going to the project properties page and, in the compile tab, click on the "Advanced Compile Options" button. There you'll be able to choose.
And, also as Tedd mentions, you should avoid targeting the "Client Profile" versions unless you specifically know that the subsets present therein are sufficient.
On my machine (Windows 7 Enterprise x86) I have installed .Net framework 4.0 and Enterprsie Library 5.0 without any problems. Maybe some other issue you're facing?
IAdapter,
I've answered this already. See my answer and the workaround in the comment dtd Feb 5, 2011.
I built an application for version 4 of the framework. When I try to run it it says:
In order to run the application, you have to install the following version of the .NET-framework first: v4.0 [...]
That already isn't too bad but it would be great to display a custom message, maybe even with a link to the latest version of the framework.
Is that possible?
There is no straight-forward way of customizing this message. In fact, the message about the unsupported version of the framework is coming from mscoree.dll (i.e. the version of mscoree.dll present on the system).
What you can do is write your own launcher in C++, that will first check whether the required framework version is installed, possibly display a custom message and then host the CLR inside the launcher.
If your application uses a Windows installer package (Wix) then consider listing the framework as a prerequisite, which will let the installer do the check for you and also offer the user the chance to download the framework.
It might not be the best installation mechanism, but if you create a ClickOnce installer you can set the required .NET framework for your application and it will download and install it if it's not present on the target machine.
Yes it is possible, but what platform should the message use?
You would need a bootstrapper, a wrapper that checks and then starts your App.
You could bootstrap with a .NET 2 application if you can assume that Fx2 is installed. But in the future you might see PC's that have Fx4 but not Fx2.
So you will need an unmanaged wrapper to cover the widest range of possibilities.
I have an application built with .NET 3.5. If a user runs it without having .NET 3.5 installed, I want to have control of what they see and perhaps provide a message that they can understand (with a link to .NET 3.5) versus unhandled exception stack traces. But if they don't actually have .NET 3.5 how can my application control anything?
Are you assuming that at least SOME version of .NET is installed?
You could write a small loader to be compatible with all versions to do the check.
Or if .NET is not installed, found a simple batch program (though this could easily be done in C++ if you prefer).
#ECHO OFF
SET FileName=%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
IF EXIST %FileName% GOTO Skip
ECHO.You currently do not have the Microsoft® .NET Framework 1.1 installed.
ECHO.This is required by the setup program for MyApplication.
ECHO.
ECHO.The Microsoft® .NET Framework 1.1 will now be installed on you system.
ECHO.After completion setup will continue to install MyApplication on your system.
ECHO.
Pause
SET FileName=
Start /WAIT .\dotnetfx.exe
Start .\Setup.exe
ECHO ON
Exit
Tongue Tiedkip
SET FileName=
Start .\Setup.exe
ECHO ON
Exit
This might also help.
Better yet, you could use an installer technology, such as Wix or a Visual Stuido setup project, that checks during installation that all the prerequisites for you software, such as a particular .NET framework runtime exist. If not, it will install them, or at least tell the user where to get them and what to do next
You could instead consider using an installer that requires 3.5 is installed. That would prevent the app from getting to the user in the first place if they can't run it.
You need an non .NET EXE file that checks for the .NET runtimes. It could be written in anything that you know exists in the target PC. For example, if targeting Windows 2000 or above, you know the Visual Basic 6.0 runtime is present, so your installer could always start a Visual Basic 6.0 splash application that checks for the runtimes before starting your .NET EXE file. A better way would be to write a C++ application that didn't rely on any runtime other than the Windows APIs.