Are all Microsoft .NET Framework updates required?

[John Wirt]

The "Add Remove Programs" window on my machine shows update packages for
Microsoft .NET 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Each one is about 180 to 200 mb. Must
all three version of the .NET software be installed.

Can I uninstall the .NET 2.0 and 3.0 updates?

John

 

[Bruce Hagen]

The "Add Remove Programs" window on my machine shows update packages for
Microsoft .NET 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Each one is about 180 to 200 mb. Must
all three version of the .NET software be installed.

Can I uninstall the .NET 2.0 and 3.0 updates?

John

They are not updates, but rather different versions so one doesn't supersede
another. Different programs use different versions to run.

From my own experience, I removed all but V 1.1. About a week later, I went
to load Turbo Tax and it required V 2.0 and it's updates to work.

So the bottom line is that you can remove them, but you may come across a
program that requires a particular version to run and have to download it
again. If you don't, you won't do any damage removing any version.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

The "Add Remove Programs" window on my machine shows update packages for
Microsoft .NET 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Each one is about 180 to 200 mb. Must
all three version of the .NET software be installed.

Can I uninstall the .NET 2.0 and 3.0 updates?

You don't *need* any .net framework files. They are required only if
you run programs that need them. And newer ones don't always replace
older ones. But my view is that even if you don't run such programs
today, you might tomorrow, and there's no point in getting rid of any
of these.

They take up a *tiny* amount of disk space. 200 million may sound like
a lot of bytes, but to put it into perspective, if all three add up to
600MB, at today's hard drive prices, when you can buy a 160GB drive
for under $50 US, you're talking about something like $.20-worth of
disk space.

 

[Lil' Dave]

The "Add Remove Programs" window on my machine shows update packages for
Microsoft .NET 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Each one is about 180 to 200 mb. Must
all three version of the .NET software be installed.

Appears to be a question, despite the lack of question mark.

Can I uninstall the .NET 2.0 and 3.0 updates?

Answer to both is if your 3rd party app or apps require a specific version
of NET Framework.

In my instance one application works fine with the 1.0 version, the other
application requires the 2.0 version. My question would be updating to a
newer version of NET Framework version, will that potentially leave the
older application unusable, AND, the same application is no longer supported
along those lines. Appears to be trial and error, with a good backup.