unistall NET framework

[Mayagrafix]

The cleaner uninstall window shows several versions of Microsoft .Net Framework, including versions 1 though 3 and service packs. Can I uninstall the earlier versions and just keep the latest? or do they all need to be present to work?

[ident]

There are older versions for a reason. Uninstalling older net frame works could lead to trouble with older applications the framework was designed for. I would seriously suggest you leave well alone.

[Mayagrafix]

sounds good to me! Thanks for the tip

[ident]

sounds good to me! Thanks for the tip

 

There are ways, and im sure some users on here might remove older versions. m$ does give detailed information on how to.

 

Personally i would stay clear. Mor einformation can be found here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/829019

[Alan_B]

A few years ago an urgent security patch for .NET 2 could NOT be installed by myself and many other people.

 

M.$. gave up trying to devise workarounds and decided the only solution was to fully remove all .NET junk and then re-install.

 

Regrettably they skilfully designed .NET like a vertical shanty town with one rabbit hutch balanced on top of the previous, and it was not possible to remove the "broken" .NET 2 until the later .NET 3 was removed.

 

The final straw was that after removing .NET 3.5 which I never permitted them to install, and then the .NET 3,

when I removed .NET 2 it proceeded until a sudden abort when Windows announced some error - zero clues given.

I subsequently learnt that Windows had mislaid some catalogue file which told it the order in which components had been installed, and without data on the correct order for uninstalling it chose to dis-obey my instructions and leave a broken .NET with gaping wide security vulnerabilities.

 

Sometimes it is impossible to remove an early version of .NET,

and even where that could be possible, you will suffer a whole lot of extra hurt if later versions are still standing on it.

 

Alan

[Aethec]

Leave all .NET 2 and higher as ident suggested ; however, .NET 1 can be safely uninstalled as no modern apps are using it.

 

Alan_B >> I know I'm going to say something rude, but...don't criticize decisions from the .NET team (the fact some are dependent on previous ones) when you obviously do not know anything about .NET. Besides, the fact you had a problem does not mean everyone will have it. Finally, why were you uninstalling .NET anyway ? Disks are huge nowadays

[Alan_B]

Leave all .NET 2 and higher as ident suggested ; however, .NET 1 can be safely uninstalled as no modern apps are using it.

 

Alan_B >> I know I'm going to say something rude, but...don't criticize decisions from the .NET team (the fact some are dependent on previous ones) when you obviously do not know anything about .NET. Besides, the fact you had a problem does not mean everyone will have it. Finally, why were you uninstalling .NET anyway ? Disks are huge nowadays

 

I was specifically advised by Microsoft Technical support on how to install the security patch,

and their advice failed for me as it did for many others.

Microsoft Technical support then told me I had to remove .NET 2 and then install it again so security patches would be installed, and they told me I could NOT uninstall .NET 2 without first uninstalling .NET 3 and anything later.

I found that Add/Remove could NOT remove .NET 2

Microsoft Technical support told me more ways to remove .NET 2, but they also failed.

I eventually gave up when I found my phone calls were costing me money but achieving absolute zilch.

 

There were vast numbers of people with this particular problem.

I eventually found astebner and

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2006/05/30/611355.aspx and

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2007/09/21/5046920.aspx

 

His tool was able to tear .NET 2 out of the guts of XP, and it also showed me that XP had a secret error message that it had lost the catalogue file.

CCleaner then showed me a thousand or so missing shared DLL's with .NET 2 removed,

and after re-installing .NET 2 there were still a few dozen missing DLL's

 

I know that CCleaner is able to zero out the counters which suggest certain DLL's are still needed by something else,

but I cannot accept that as a cure if tearing the guts out of XP has removed a few dozen DLL's which are still needed by something more important and vital than .NET Framework.

I decided the proper and only safe solution was to obtain trustworthy advice,

and to mount the disc image I created before tearing out the guts,

and then identify and copy the DLL's which were missing.

 

Due to other pressures on my time I temporarily restored the disc image with zero missing DLL's plus a broken .NET 2,

and attended to more urgent matters until I had time to fully resolve the problem.

Then came SP3 and that APPEARS to have abated Windows Update insistence that .NET needs a security patch.

I do not know if the security problem is resolved, or if plague and pestilence is about to erupt from the corpse buried under a new layer of turf on the front lawn ! !

 

Fortunately I have far more confidence in Comodo to keep me safe,

than I can muster for Microsoft with all its patch failures.

Years ago it needed two attempts to stop Autorun from installing malware,

and I believe yet another bodge patch was needed a month or so ago as yet another attempt.

 

I believe M.$. are trying to improve security of what they now produce,

but self appointed pundits have repeated Microsoft promises of better security with Win 95, 98, XP, etc.

and there is an awful lot of legacy stuff that is more bloat than security,

I would like to believe, but it is so hard ! !

 

Alan

[Aethec]

Actually, only .NET 3 and 3.5 need .NET 2 because they use the same runtime. .NET 1 had a different one, and .NET 4 has a different one too. If they had to make .NET 2 uninstallable without removing .NET 3 and 3.5, they'd need to bundle the runtime with each framework, which is a waste of disk space.

 

...I still don't get why you are using Windows if you believe MS are idiots and not trustworthy.

[Alan_B]

...I still don't get why you are using Windows if you believe MS are idiots and not trustworthy.

My first P.C. had DOS 3.32 which I bought second hand when I did not know better.

When I knew better I realised that CPM was a far superior command line interface.

I never bought another P.C. - they were all (including XP) given free when my children grew out of them ! !

I suffered 30 years continuous use of PC's and Windows because those were supplied by my employer for me to create software that was archived on the company network.

The PC's were guaranteed to give each day at least 2 out of 3 of :-

Absolute freeze when I told it to shut down ;

Rebuking me in the morning for failing to shut down properly ;

A couple of BSOD's and or losing functionality of the mouse.

 

I had to use their intolerable rubbish for accessing company servers, and also for running source code editors and assemblers / compilers / linkers to create non-stop always-running security system to protect high value and high security installations. A BSOD is the last thing the client requires when my computer should dispatch an armed guide to intercept an intruder. Although I created software with unreliable PC's, our security systems used reliable 8 bit embedded processors which never had a software failure - the few that failed were due to excessive ambient temperatures in the boiler house installations, or race hazards within the silicon chips when a "process shrink" reduced dimensions to get more processors out of a silicon slice.

 

I just wish M.$ put as much effort into their software as I put into mine.

 

I use a P.C because

It was given to me

I am not convinced an Apple is more reliable,

I am not familiar with Linux, but am thinking of dual-booting to Linux

I have not enough life left to create my own reliable Operating System to support Open-Office.

 

So I continue with the "Devil I know" - at least it cannot harm me.

My extreme distrust protected me from the M.$. Security patch that deliberately crippled the security of Firefox by adding the same single click vulnerability that they had in I.E.

I also have Acronis so if M.$. do spring one on me, I can restore normality by restoring a backup image.

 

Regards

Alan

[Andavari]

Leave all .NET 2 and higher as ident suggested ; however, .NET 1 can be safely uninstalled as no modern apps are using it.

 

Unless of course someone is using an old program that requires it.

 

I still have all versions installed, although most programs require either version 2 or 3.5 now.