.NET 3.5 Runtime / broken after MS Updates / install failures

[Shalom Shachne]

We are supporting a number of clients who are running our .NET 3.5
app. Recently we have seen several machines where the 3.5 Runtime
just "stopped" working. It seems like, in each case, some kind of MS
Windows update was installed (we're not sure).

Once the runtime stops working, attempts to reinstall it fail - I
think always with a dependency failure that .NET 2.0 isn't installed.

Is anyone out there seeing this same problem? (We are on machine #3
with this same problem, all in different locations).

Thanks in advance.

Sam

 

[Thomas Scheidegger]

3.5 Runtime just "stopped" working.

try:

Unified .NET Framework Troubleshooting Guide
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/articles/454956.aspx

..NET Framework Setup Verification Tool User's Guide
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/pages/8999004.aspx

..NET Framework Cleanup Tool User's Guide
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/pages/8904493.aspx

 

[Shalom Shachne]

try:

Unified .NET Framework Troubleshooting Guidehttp://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/articles/454956.aspx

.NET Framework Setup Verification Tool User's Guidehttp://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/pages/8999004.aspx

.NET Framework Cleanup Tool User's Guidehttp://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/pages/8904493.aspx

We tracked this down with the help of Microsoft. We work with
traders, and it turns out that Microsoft was already trying to figure
out why trader using Bloomberg were having this problem. We were able
to replicate the problem with Microsoft Tech on our local machine, and
it turns out the pathology is as follows:

1. Bloomberg released 2 new .NET apps to traders desktops. These
Bloomberg apps were locking .NET system folders for extended periods
of time.
2. Windows Automatic Update was updating a .NET 2.0 Runtime hot fix.
Hot fix installer fails because the required .NET folders are locked
by BBG app.
3. Hot fix installer has a bug, where instead of rolling back
certain .NET assemblies on failure, it deletes them.

The .NET re-install kept failing until we realized that BBG had
folders locked. Once we killed the BBG apps (or rebooted machine),
the reinstall worked.

Microsoft says they expect a fix to the .NET 2.0 hot fix installer to
be ready next week.

Now that we know what's going on, it's easy to reinstall .NET whenever
this happens. This affected a lot traders who run .NET apps and also
use Bloomberg.