If I update from .net 4.5 to .net 4.8 when i compile my project. Does that introduce a risk that the clients cant run the dlls?
Do all users have to upgrade to .net 4.8 on their machines or are the .net version backwards compatible? They have all been able to run the app when it was compiled with .net 4.5.
What im trying to ask is if i risk that some clients wont be able to run the app by upgrading the Target Framework when building it.
This is from 4.5 to 4.8.
Does that introduce a risk that the clients cant run the dlls?
Yes
Do all users have to upgrade to .net 4.8 on their machines
Yes, if they do not already have it.
are the .net version backwards compatible?
Yes, they are backwards compatible, meaning a user with .net 4.8 can run programs written for .net 4.5 with no issue. Not the other way around.
What i'm trying to ask is if i risk that some clients wont be able to run the app by upgrading the Target Framework when building it.
They should have .net 4.8 installed since it is bundled with windows 10 1903 and later. See versions and dependencies. All older versions of windows 10 is end of life. The only exceptions are windows server 2019/2016.
Even if your client lacks .Net 4.8, windows should simply ask if they want to install .net 4.8, so it should be very easy to do as long as the users have permission to install things on their computers.
Related
I'm working on a C# Code that has as Targeted Framework .NET 4.6, and I'm trying to troubleshoot some issues that occurs during the execution.
That code is running on some clients, that has a .NET 3.5 Version.
My question is, does .NET 4.6 supports retro-compatibility, and if so, should it be wiser to have an aligned Framework versions (Target Version same as Client Version)??
TL;DR: Basically, you can run old on new, but not new on old.
DotNet 4.6+ is backwards compatible in the sense, that you can run an App built with DotNet 3.5 etc. But you cannot run an app built with DotNet 4.6+ while using an older installed framework eg. 3.5 or others. Take it this way:
Imagine you have a windows 10 computer and you want to install an app built for windows 8 or even XP and older. Modern windows has the compatibility layers, necessary to run or install the program.
Now what you/your clients are doing is basically taking an app specifically designed for windows 10, and trying to run it on Windows XP or 95 etc. That won't work as the compatibility layers are not in place to support the "future". No one can foresee the new features and API's that they might add, so the app is incompatible with older Windows.
If you are targeting .NET 4.6, then target .NET 4.6.
Do not expect your code/app to be compatible with anything lower, and if you do need it to be, you have to target that specific version. Which has its own draw-backs as the newer methods / ways of doing things and many libraries you could be using do not apply/are not compatible.
You can either update everything to use 4.6 or higher, or switch your codebase to target 3.5 and live with the drawbacks.
From Backward Compatibility
The .NET Framework 4.5 and later versions are backward-compatible with
apps that were built with earlier versions of the .NET Framework. In
other words, apps and components built with previous versions will
work without modification on the .NET Framework 4.5 and later
versions.
In your case app is built on .Net Framework 4.6 and the platform on client machine is 3.5 version. There might be some issues because app requires newer version than platform it runs.
.NET Framework version 4.6 was included with Windows 10 from version 1507 and .NET Framework version 4.6.2 was included with Windows Server 2016. If your clients are running either of these versions of Windows or newer, you won't have to install anything to run your .NET Framework 4.6 app, and it won't be running on .NET Framework 3.5 even if you do have it installed.
If you're using an older version of Windows than that and don't have .NET Framework 4.6 or newer installed, I wouldn't expect it to run at all.
I have an application that relies on .NET 6 runtime. If I don't have any .NET runtimes installed on my machine, not only the one my application needs but also without other versions of .net runtime, I could see some messages prompted when execute it.
Does anyone have any insight about how the detection work or who gives the prompted information? Is it done by the OS?
Thanks!
Windows 10 and 11 comes pre-installed with .NET Framework.
A .NET 6 application can be released as a self-contained application that includes the required runtimes to run (if it is not on the machine) as suggested here; https://stackoverflow.com/a/72630528/1165173
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/install/how-to-detect-installed-versions?pivots=os-windows
I have a Winforms application developed in c# targetting .Net Framework 4.0. I created a setup for the application and packaged the .Net Framework 4.0 within the setup. During installation, the setup installs the .Net Framework 4.0 (if not installed already), and the application works fine.
I know it's not possible to run .Net application without .Net Framework. Is there some way I can package the CLR, JIT, and all required dll's with my application so that I won't need to install the entire .Net Framework 4.0 on the target machine?
Can i create my own installer for .Net Framework 4.0? Installer which insalls only the libraries which are required for my application, thus eliminating the need to install entire .Net Framework?
I have looked into ngen, Turbo Studio etc. to containerize the application but that does not suit for my purpose. Any help will be highly appreciated.
The .NET Framework was not designed to be deployed partially. I don't think this is possible - even if you will get that to work, it won't be supported officially. You might even see that your app is running but it might crash at any time later as soon as an assembly gets referenced (lazy by reflection, for example) you have no direct reference to.
Having only those parts of the framework deployed which are directly or indirectly referenced by your app is one of the main ideas of .NET Core - but you won't be able to do full-featured UIs with it by now.
If the user's PC has only Framework 2.0 installed, will Framework 4.0 work?
I installed windows 7 on my other laptop and tried to run my application built on C#, it didn't work. I figured out that my application is targeted for Framework 4.
When I ran this app on that laptop, it didn't work.. I wonder why, i thought that framework is already installed with windows. It's either it has an old Framework version ( like 2.0 ) OR it doesn't have any Framework installed.
Should I change my target to Framework 2.0 in order to make it work?
If the user's PC has only Framework 2.0 installed, will Framework 4.0 work?
If the user has only .NET 2.0 installed and you attempt to run an application compiled against .NET 4.0 it won't work.
On the other hand if the user has .NET 4.0 installed and you attempt to run an application compiled against .NET 2.0 this will work.
I am not aware of any forward compatible frameworks. Only backwards compatible. Makes sense?
Should I change my target to Framework 2.0 in order to make it work?
Yes, if you want to run your application on a computer that has only .NET 2.0 installed.
I have winforms application. When I look at the references they are all .net 4 (same as the application) apart from one which says v2.0. I can run the app locally and use functionality from the .net components but as soon as I take the app to another machine it wont fire up. Apparently this hapens when references cant be found.
Im very confused as to why this would work locally. I have checked the GAC and only .net 2.0 versions exist for the referenced dlls.?..
What are the rules around rererencing dlls from older versions on .net?
It is perfectly fine to have the two versions of the framework running on the same machine. Are both .NET 2 and .NET 4 installed on the second machine you are testing on? I suspect that they are not.
Yes you can reference .Net 2.0 dlls from .Net 4.0 project.
You might be referencing only .Net 2.0 dlls but your target framework might be .Net 4.0, which might not be available on your other machine.
To correct this:
Open your project properties.
Set Target framework to .Net Framework 2.0 or 4.0.
If you set it to 4.0, you must have 4.0 installed on the machine you want it to run on.
The quickest way to see which versions are installed on a machine:
open VS command prompt and type clrver. (Ofcourse you'll need .Net SDK)
To see which framework your app uses type clrver
you can get for your application from task manager (in process tab, click View->select columns->check PID)
Starting .NET 4.0, your app can target multiple frameworks in different AppDomains in the same process.
Remember that the framework that your application is determined automatically, but you can override this default behaviours. One way to do this is what I described above.
Note that the GAC location has changed between .Net 2.0 and .Net 4.0. You most likely have both versions installed on your machine and you have looked at the 2.0 GAC.
The second machine most likely does not have 2.0 installed, hence it fails running.