If I compile a simple(no additional libraries or assemblies) c# application, can I assume it will run on any new windows 7 machine natively or do I have to worry about end users having .Net or other libraries installed?
Windows 7 includes the .NET Framework 3.5.1 as an OS component.
This means you will get:
.NET Framework 2.0 SP2
3.0 SP2
3.5 SP1
some post 3.5 SP1 bug fixes
However, if you're using newer versions of .NET, and if you're using libraries that don't get shipped with the above, then you still need to consider packaging these up in an MSI/installer.
This page on Wikipedia has a good summary:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework#Versions
If this is anything more than a "quick and dirty" app, or unless you work in an area where you know exactly what the target machines look like (i.e. a corporate environment with a locked down OS image) then I'd suggest you look at building an installer and deal with pulling down the pre-requisites as appropriate. (WiX is my recommended way of doing that).
http://wix.sourceforge.net/
And WiX questions are tagged here on SO...
https://stackoverflow.com/tags/wix/
Windows 7 comes preinstalled with .NET 3.5.1 which includes 3.5 SP1, so unless you need features of .NET 4 it should work just fine.
Windows 7 ships with .Net 3.5, so, if you this .net version or lower, your application should be able to run on any Windows 7 installation
You need the appropriate .Net framework installed to match what your C# program was written with. If you don't have the correct framework, download it from microsoft.com.
Related
I faced a strange behavior using the following code:
FileDialog openFileDialog1;
// ...
openFileDialog1.CustomPlaces.Add(#"C:\whatever\");
This compiles with no errors using .NET framework 2.0.
The code runs well under Windows 7.
But under Windows XP I get the following error at runtime:
System.MissingMethodException: Method not found: 'System.Windows.Forms.FileDialogCustomPlacesCollection System.Windows.Forms.FilaDialog.get_CustomPlaces()'.
Trying to figure out the problem tells me:
Visual Studio 2005 help don't know about the CustomPlaces property of FileDialog
MSDN says that this property exists only since framework 3.5 - and "On Windows XP, this property does not have any effect."
Visual Studio 2005 intellisense offers me the exsistence of the property (so I thought using this property is fine)
That obviously doesn't fit toghether.
I still want to use the code, so I'm trying to figure out how a do check before calling it:
if (...) {
openFileDialog1.CustomPlaces.Add(#"C:\whatever\");
}
My question is:
Is CustomPlaces not supported by .NET 2.0 or is is not supported by Windows XP?
How do I handle this correctly?
1) Do I have to check for the Windows version:
if (Environment.OSVersion.Version.Major >= 6) ...
2) Or do I have to check for the framework version:
if (Environment.Version.Major >= 4) ...
3) Or both, or else !?
It seems you have answered your own question in your post. The MSDN documentation clearly states that the FileDialog.CustomPlaces property exists only from .Net Framework 3.5 onwards. If your application is running on .Net Framework 2.0, then no, it's not supported. (Actually, looking at the .NET 4.5 MSDN documentation for the property, it seems it's supported as of .Net Framework 2.0 SP1.)
If you are using Visual Studio 2010 or higher, I would ensure that you retarget your project to compile with the .Net Framework 2.0 (RTM) if that's what framework your application will be running against. I noticed that you specifically mentioned VS 2005. If you are using VS 2005, I don't believe that has any re-targeting capabilities (if memory serves me correctly); VS2005 by default compiles against .NET Framework 2.0. Here's where things get interesting: an installation of .NET Framework 3.5 has .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 and .NET Framework 3.0 SP1 as installation pre-requisites. So, if your machine has only .NET Framework 2.0 and you want to install .NET Framework 3.5, then your .NET Framework 2.0 will be upgraded to .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 (and additionally, .NET Framework 3.0 SP1 will also be installed).
So what does this mean for you? Well, if you compile your program on a machine on which .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 or higher is installed, your program will compile just fine. Furthermore, if you run the program on a machine running .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 or higher, it will also run just fine. However, if you take this same program and run it on a machine which contains only the vanilla .NET Framework 2.0, you will get the error you see above because that method/property is not supported in the libraries included with the .NET Framework 2.0.
The other side of the story is the part of the MSDN documentation that says that while FileDialog.CustomPlaces exists from .Net Framework 2.0 SP1 and onwards, and that while that version of the Framework may be installed on Windows XP, that on Windows XP calling the property has no effect (i.e. it's a null-op, not supported by the OS). So no error should occur, but you will also see that whatever you tried to add to the CustomPlaces collection would not show up when you run the application on Windows XP. Again, looking at the updated documentation as of .Net Framework 4.5.x (see the link above), it clearly states that the lowest supported client operating system platform supported is Windows Vista SP2. So in all likelihood, you're out of luck when it comes to Windows XP.
If you want to do an OS version check, I would advise you to do the following check:
if (Environment.OSVersion.Version.Major > 5 &&
Environment.OSVersion.Version.Minor >= 0 &&
Environment.OSVersion.ServicePack == "Service Pack 2")
{
// Add CustomPlace here...
}
Note that the check above will not allow you to add the FileDialog.CustomPlaces for Windows Server 2008 (even though it is supported—because through .NET, you're not able to check the ProductTypeID property). Furthermore, FileDialog.CustomPlaces is not supported on the Server Core mode of Windows until Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (but the code above will allow you to attempt to add the custom place, but like Windows XP, it will fail silently). In order to make a determination for these versions of Windows, you'll need to use a bit of PInvoke to access the Win32 API's GetVersionEx method and OSVERSIONINFOEX structure located in kernel32.dll as shown here and/or here.
However, generally speaking, it's not a good idea to do operating system version checks. They are notoriously difficult (especially with older operating systems). What you really need to do is to perform a .NET Framework version check. Your application apparently requires, at a minimum, .NET Framework 2.0 SP1. If you have an installer for your program, I would build in this check to your installer and optionally provide the ability to install the .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 as part of the installation of your program.
If you're not using an installer to distribute your program, then you should perform a .NET Framework version check in your application prior to attempting to add the FileSystemCustomPlace to the CustomPlaces collection to prevent the error from occurring; however, doing so will require your users with versions of Windows Vista and later to run the application with elevated permissions. Aaron Stebner has a great blog post on how to determine the .NET Framework installations that are available on your machine with example code. There is also a C# implementation of this code provided by a CodeProject.com user here.
i am developing WPF desktop application with visual studio. i want the application to be fit all current common OS with no need to install .NET framework before application installation. i asume that the most common OS today are windows7 and windows8. in witch .NET framework should i develop in order to assure this compatibility?
Refer to this answer on SO for the supported .NET Frameworks per operating system: OS Compatibility for various .NET Framework versions. (it seems to be not totally accurate on the by default installed version on Vista. See MSDN).
If you want to support Windows Vista - Windows 8 (what I would recommend), you could go as far as .NET 4.5.1. The thing you have to keep in mind that this requires the user to upgrade .NET to that version on Vista. Vista has .NET 3 installed by default.
So if you want Windows to support your application out of the box, you have to use .NET 3.
Originally it is set to use .Net3.5 for compatibility with win7. (Actually using WPF)
However when it comes to users in win8 which supports only the .Net4.0,
it is required for users to download and install .Net3.5,
which results in a terrible user experience.
Here comes my question:
How to make a software compatible with multiple .Net versions?
Actually I tried to use .Net 2.0 for the software and it goes well with both win7 and win8. However when it comes to .Net 3.5, the backward compatibility seems to be awful. However I really need some features available in 3.5, or WPF.
I don't mind if I have to build multiple binary releases, provided a auto-selection mechanism is available.
P.S. I've found a similar question at Make same app compatible for Net3.5 & 4.0#stackoverflow but got no help after reading it.
Edit
I'm using both winform and WPF. I'm using WPF for a better looking UI, however, as is nutoriously know, the webbrowser in WPF cannot render in a WPF app. So I use a winform webbrowser.
If you're making an normal WPF desktop application, just move your target framework to .Net 4 and be done with it. .Net 4 is fully supported on Windows 7 as well as Windows 8. If you don't want to have the users download an install .Net 4, include it in your setup distribution.
Make sure you don't use types that are not included in the lowest version you target!
.NET 2, 3 and 3.5 all share the same CLR, which should have the same effect on your code and expected outcome. 3.0 and 3.5 has different types as well, so watch out for that.
.NET 4.0 has a different CLR and your code might not act 100% in the same way as with the CLR 2.0.
But, why not ship with the redistributable 4.0 framework. It works on XP sp3, Vista sp1 , 7 and 8. Distributing .NET 4.0 redistributable with application
I'm writing a C# app (in VS 2008). If I target the .Net 3.5 framework, will it run on Windows XP and above? Will XP users potentially have to download a .Net upgrade?
UPDATE
If the app is intended for business / corporate environments do you think it's pretty safe to target 3.5 rather than 2.0?
Only Windows 7 and newer will come with .NET 3.5 (SP1) pre-installed; Windows XP and Vista users, while able to run apps built on .NET 3.5, have to download and install it first in order to use your app.
I think the latest service packs of XP and Vista include .NET 3.5, though.
If the app is intended for business / corporate environments do you think it's pretty safe to target 3.5 rather than 2.0?
Not if the client machines are not able to upgrade or install the 3.5 Framework.
It's not safe to assume they already have the framework. It is realistic, however, to have them install the framework. They probably have it, and if they don't then they should get it if you're writing an app in 3.5.
Hey guys - I just wrote an app using c# and ready to deploy it. Never deployed a c# app before.
I deployed it and VC# outputted a .application file, application folder, and an installer. One of my users ran the installer (Windows 7) and was prompted to download/install the .net framework - which took upwards of 10 minutes. This is not acceptable for how simple my app is.
Moreover, I will need this app to be able to run on mac osx and linux if possible. Should I have wrote this in Java instead (poor planning on my part). What are my options?
C# is compiled to bytecode that runs on the CLR, the virtual machine that's at the core of the .NET framework. So yes, you need the .NET framework to run that.
Most current versions of Windows (XP, Vista, 7, etc.) come with some version of the .NET framework pre-installed, so your users don't have to download and install it. However, you might have used a version that's not already installed on the computers of (some of) your users.
For Linux and Mac OS X there is Mono, which is an open source implementation of .NET, but it does not contain everything that Microsoft's .NET contains, so your program might not work fully on Mono.
Using Java is not a real solution in the sense that your users would need to download and install the JRE (Java Runtime Environment) to run Java programs, very similar to the .NET framework. An advantage if you'd have used Java, is that Java is much more cross-platform compatible than .NET (Microsoft has no real interest in making .NET run on anything else than Windows).
.NET apps require the .NET framework. Java apps require the JRE. Your app is simple because .NET has done a lot of the work for you. A lot of companies write desktop apps in C++, but you will have to be mindful of cross-platform issues.
Yes, with any language that compiles to run on a managed runtime (.NET or Mono CLR, Java JVM) you will need to have that runtime installed. A C# application can compile to run on Windows on the .NET CLR, or on all the platforms you mention to run on the Mono runtime instead. Alternatively, a Java application would compile to run on the Java JRE, which is also compatible with all the platforms you mention.
So with either language there is potentially this extra installation overhead, and with either language you can achieve what you want.
You'll need to have .NET installed on your client's system in order to use your application.
As for running cross-platform - depending on how your Application is written, this can be simple or difficult.
You may want to look at Silverlight. This is directly supported on OS X and works on Linux via Moonlight.
Another alternative is to use Mono to run your .NET application on other platforms.
A C# app will need an implementation of the CLR (.NET) running on the local machine in order to run. A Java app will need an implementation of the JVM so it is really no different. On Windows, I would expect most people to have a .NET install.
Take a look at the Mono project as far as running it on Linux and Mac:
http://mono-project.com/Main_Page
One thing you can consider is using an older version of the .NET framework to ensure that the greatest number of people have it installed. I would use .NET 3.5 or even 2.0 if you do not need fancy new features. That would have been installed already on Windows 7 for example.
Since the Windows 7 user had to download the framework I assume you are currently targeting .NET 4 which means you must be using Visual Studio 2010 (or an express version). Here is a link that tells you how to target a different version of the framework:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb398202.aspx
One quick note about Mono, it is an excellent cross-platform option but it does not support the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) GUI framework at this point. You will either have to use Windows Forms or create different front-ends for different platforms.
If you want to create a Linux GUI (also available on Windows and Mac) you can try GTK#:
http://www.mono-project.com/GtkSharp
For a Mac native GUI you can check out MonoMac:
http://mjhutchinson.com/journal/2010/06/09/monomac_in_monodevelop
An excellent IDE for cross-platform .NET development is MonoDevelop (it will read your VC# project files):
http://monodevelop.com/
Like Java, .Net languages need a runtime installed. The full .Net framework is sometimes too big for small applications, so there is a smaller version of it call the compact framework with a smaller footprint that will install and download faster. You can read about it at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/aa497273.aspx. As noted by other answers most current versions of Windows come with various versions of .Net framework, so this installation may not be needed for every user.
As far as your cross platform needs go Mono allows for running .Net applications on Linux, I am not sure about running them on OSX. My assumption is you can not. Unfortunately your cross platform requirements made .Net a bad choice, and you should have gone with Java.
Other people gave you complicated answers. Well here's my simple answer. .NET framework is needed to run .NET applications and so do Java need JVM (as MCain said). Starting with Windows Vista, Microsoft includes .NET Framework built inside Windows. And in addition, .NET have versions, from 1.0 to 4.0. With Vista and Windows 7, .NET 3.5 is installed by default. I think your app is targeted for .NET 4.0 which is why a Windows 7 user needed to install .NET framework. For me, if I have to write a simple program, I'll use .NET 2.0 (later version = larger libraries, etc) so that my users (if they are Vista or Windows 7) don't have to install .NET again to run my software. You can choose which version of .NET you will target from New Project Window in Visual Studio.
You can change the target framework in the properties tab. If you start a project in VS2008 the default is .net 3.5 and for VS2010 it is .net 4.0. If you don't need the advanced features you can change your target back to 2.0 which should be available on most computers by now (I would guess far over 90%). Be sure to remove dependencies which are not available in 2.0 (like System.Linq, System.DataSet.Extensions) and the accociated imports (But the compiler will tell you what to do).