.NET 3.5 is not recommended?

[Sin Jeong-hun]

I had installed Windows XP. Now, I went to the Windows Update site. As
many of you already know, there is a category named "Software ,
optional". I could find .NET 1.1 (still there, after several years of
its release, and it is 2 generations old), and .NET 2.0. But I
couldn't find .NET 3.5 sp1 or .NET 3.5 or even .NET 3.0.

Then I thought, after installing .NET 2.0, .NET 3.0 or .NET 3.5 might
appear at the optional software category, but it didn't. Only .NET 2.0
service pack 1 did, at the high priority category.

Why is that? Microsoft doesn't recommend .NET 3.0 or higher for
Windows XP? To distribute WPF applications, we need .NET 3.0 or later,
and yet, we cannot make users install .NET 3.0 or later from the
Windows Update.

 

[Ken Lemieux]

I believe that .NET 3.0, 3.5 and 3.5 sp1 are extenstions to .NET 2.0. Unlike
..Net 1.0,1.1 and 2.0 where diffrences in the core libraries existed and
required updating.

Therefore, to deploy a WPF app, you must ensure the correct framework
version is installed as a prerequisite. I do this currently in my wpf
deployed applications using Clickonce. I even have control to retrieve the
installation from "the component vendores web site", Microsoft in this case.

 

[Marc]

I think I read on an MSDN blog that 3.5 will be pushed out via Windows
Update November time, if I recall correctly.

Either way, any application that needs it will (or rather, should)
probably install it for you.

Marc