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I am performing a small feasibly test before building my app. Currently I have several options. The first includes building an application that combines silverlight and activex. Now activex can work with only .net framework 1.1 installed on the client's computer.

The other possibility is working with XAPBs which demand .net framework 3.0.

So my question is, What are the framework versions that automatically come with windows XP (including patches and service packs). It's very important for understanding if what I am trying to develop has any market at all...

Thank you!

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XP didn't ship with any .NET, SP1 and 2 had v1.0 as an option, SP3 installed v1.0+bugfixes by default. Server 2003 shipped with v1.1, Vista and Server 2008 with v3.0 and finally W7 and 2008R2 with v3.5. All can run 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5 & 4.0b1 if installed/updated.

Chopper3
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  • I don't think you can actually install the any 1.x framework versions on Vista and beyond. However, assemblies compiled for 1.x can theoretically run without issue under 2.x and beyond. – Ryan Bolger Aug 15 '09 at 15:21
  • I put 1.1 on server 2008 just last week – Chopper3 Aug 15 '09 at 16:08
  • You can scertainly put 1.1 on an version up to and past XP/2003 – Jim B Aug 15 '09 at 17:11
  • ok I see. Thank you chopper. Do you have any kind of estimation of what is the percentage of windows OSes that have .net framework 2 \ 3 installed on them? Where can I check out this kind of information? –  Aug 15 '09 at 19:53
  • 2.0 only really shipped with Visual Studio 2005 but I'd imagine 50% have 1.1, 20% with 3.0 and <10 with 3.5 - total guess though – Chopper3 Aug 15 '09 at 20:20
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I don't fully understand the implications of your question with regards to activex, but my understanding is that silverlight is something that runs in the browser (yes I know that the newest version can run out of the browser) within a sandboxed security environment, and the Silverlight runtime is a standalone installation with a reduced set of .Net base class libraries.

If my understanding is correct, then wouldn't the version of .Net installed on the OS be irrelevant (providing that a given browser has Silverlight support).

Sam
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  • +1 Yes, this is true. Silverlight has its own self-contained version of the .NET CLR with irrelevant assemblies excluded (such as ASP.NET, WinForms, etc). – squillman Aug 15 '09 at 21:04