Do you still need 3.5 if you only install 4.0?

Randar Puust

We have a 3.5 application and are planning on supporting 4.0 in the near future and were wondering if we should just tell our support to only install the 4.0 framework now. The question really is, will a 3.5 application work, with no changes with only the 4.0 framework installed?

Randar Puust Software Architect, Jonas Software MCSD.Net, MCSE

Lost User

Yes, definitely. Dotnet Framework 4.0 provides backward compatibility. HTH

Jinal Desai - LIVE Experience is mother of sage....

Luc Pattyn

really? that is not how I understand it. Unfortunately I can't test it easily right now. :)

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Lost User

Jinal Desai - LIVE wrote:

Dotnet Framework 4.0 provides backward compatibility.

In that case it should include 3.5, either within itself or by auto install.

It's time for a new signature.

dan sh

Just change the target framework in your application (3.5 Framework one) and test it once. If everything goes fine then you can go ahead with only 4.0 on the computer.

Anshul R

If you are creating an installer with the .NET Framework specifications/requirements, it will compel the user to install the version you have specified even if the user has a newer version.

Lost User

I've tested this and it seems that any solution/project created under 3.5 and opened in 4.0 requires conversion - it automatically brings up a conversion wizard. Creating new projects under 4.0 gives the choice of frameworks 2.0, 3.0, 3.5 or 4.

Luc Pattyn

yes, the project files for different Studio versions have different content; this is independent of the .NET version that is being targeted by the project. So VS2010 can create a project that targets .NET 2.0, and said project will result in an exe/dll that runs fine on a 2.0-only system, but the project itself won't open in VS2005. :)

Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]

I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.

I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).