What is the .NET Framework, and do I need all these versions?

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I was supposing (guessing) that .NET framework was something used by my installed programs rather than by me but wasn't sure. I liked this article because I remember very painfully VB Runtime and DLL Hell and have several small, speciality programs that use them.
Leo, this article was more enlighting than Wikipedia whichs never really tells a non-programer what it does. Thanks

Well, its a good thing that they created this .NET stuff, so that people wouldn't have to keep rewriting basic code. I have few if any applications that use it, but I have hundreds of megabytes of file data for .NET components.

Then, someone is saying that we should just keep all the versions on our computers because MY harddisk space is cheap and MY time spent fixing it is not. Thats the kind of attitude that gets us here. I think it should be THEIR time fixing it and making it right in the first place.

What a mess this .NET stuff is.

If you want your software to be run on a VM use Java. If you want native apps use native code. Now we are going to have system software running in a VM oh joy! Better get that new CPU and extra memory to support the next generation of bloatware.

Better update your internet connection while your at it to support all the latest .NET updates that are coming your way!

Leo! I found "Ask Leo" about 4 ,5 weeks ago and a day doesn't go by where in a few minutes you mange brilliantly to cut through the junk , save me countless hours of time on maintenance. I had the NET Framework 1 and 2 downloaded automatically. When I was asked by "Uniblue register" to download NEt Framework 3 I had "errors" many hours on the phone with Microsoft windows tech support, countless emails, sending in logs, registry,and major coniptions to no avail.I finally asked Microsoft if I need their NET Framework and they said no as a home user who doesn't program.{They prbably wanted to get me off their tail}.
Thanks for clearing things up quickly and simply as you always do.

What a relief to find that others find Microsoft's explanations incomprehensible. I almost deleted .Net Framework until reading this article, thinking it was foundation for a programming language that I wasn't into. Thank you, Leo, and all you other respondents.

Excellent explanation - I need additional help! So, I get the part that you sometimes need various versions of the .NET Framwork for other programs, my problem is that I tried to install a software program that included .NET (v2 if I remember correctly) as a redistributable, but when it got to the .NET installation part, it gave me an error and wouldn't let me continue the download. Needless to say, I can't run that software on my computer w/out it.
I talked to the software tech support, they said the problem was with MSoft, not them, so they wouldn't help. Any suggestions? Is there a version of .NET that is compatible with Vista that might work for my software?

I disregarded what Leo said and I deleted all the .net framework versions back as far as but not including the 1.1 hotfix. Well it didn't make any improvement - just as Leo suggested it wouuldn't - but it didn't seem to do any damage either. That is, I had non responsive start ups to IE8 before I did uninstalled the later version of .net framework and I still get the same non responsive start ups with IE8 at the same frequency as before. I will keep an eye on it. I might reinstal the .net 2.0 and 3.0 and the other updates back on if I find I'm getting any problems. I really have no idea what all of these .net framework version are for anyway.

Well, I should have just got rid of IE8. Instead I had assume the issues weren't with IE8 but were with either AVG8 or else .net Framework. After getting rid of most versions of .net Framework back until 1.1 I still had start up issues with IE8. So, I uninstalled IE8 and am back with IE7 (which I should have done in the first place!). IE7 works fine so I'm putting back all the versions of .net Framework available because it wasn't that causing me problems. Well, this all took me a couple of hours and some frustration - but I should have accepted the most obvious cause - the new IE8 and not started looking around for other causes it turned out not to be! Thanx for the good pointers on this .net Framework, Leo. I tried going against you but I came back to see you were probably right in the first place!

I have one question:
My application was hosted in a server where .Net framework 1.1 and 2.0 was installed.
Due to my requirement I have installed .Net framework 3.5 as of one more application which was development under .Net framework just want to run on the same serevr.
But after installing .Net 3.5 framework, current running application is not working properly.
Is there any draw back to insatll multiple .Net framework into single server. Please suggest ???

I think Leo's right, I might have received it in a redistribution package for website development.

I was having issues with this too. I'm not sure if I need it or not since I uninstalled my Website development software, however, as soon as I 'blocked' it(MicroSoft.NET Framework Assistant) in 'Add-ons' under 'Tools' in Firefox EVERYTHING in my browser improved. Faster page downloads and no more jiggling screens in my email box.

Important: the ".NET Framework Assistant" plugin is not the same as the .NET Framework itself. The plugin is specifically to enable a browser feature, and nothing more. The .NET Framework itself is discussed in the article.

18-Oct-2009

Firefox now automatically blocks mine. I was about to delete. NET. but checked here first. Glad I did.

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