.NET Framework 4.0 Targeting Pack does not show in Visual Studio

How can I install the .NET 4.0 Framework on Windows 8 Pro / Visual Studio 2012 Professional?

I get this:

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and if I follow the link of Install other frameworks... I get into Microsoft page where I find this information:

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I have then installed .NET Framework 4.0.1 Targeting Pack and .NET Framework 4.0.2 Targeting Pack as I can't install 4.0.3, restarted the machine over an over, but Visual Studio continues not to show the framework on the dropdown menu.

What am I doing wrong?

Here is what regedit says what I have installed on my machine:

enter image description here

balexandre

Posted 2012-10-28T09:33:21.800

Reputation: 513

1I am having the same issue on a Windows 8 machine, but no issues with a Windows 7 machine. Leaning towards it being Windows 8 – Tom Stickel – 2012-10-29T04:15:33.460

1@TomStickel same here... I have no problems with Windows 7, only after upgrade, let me know if you get a solution, I'm starting to think that a uninstall/install or reinstall would fix... will try this later today. – balexandre – 2012-10-29T10:11:44.740

A friend of mine is having the same problem. Sinking too much time into it. Have to "call it" .... Formatting to Windows 7 :/ – Tom Stickel – 2012-10-29T18:05:10.580

Related over on StackOverflow: Multi-Targeting .Net Framework 4 and Visual Studio 2012

– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2013-01-12T19:15:56.830

– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2013-01-12T19:18:05.250

Answers

.NET 4.5 is an in-place update to the 4.0 framework. Contrary to .NET 3.0 and 3.5 which were built on top of 2.0, .NET 4.5 replaces 4.0.

In fact if you have a client Windows machine with .NET 4.0 installed and install 4.5 it will update both the client and extended profiles to 4.5 (and in 4.5 there is no client and extended profiles anymore, comes in full).

I'd suggest you target 4.5 directly, but if you do need to target 4.0 maybe VS2010 needs to be installed too; I have it along with VS2012 and .NET 4 targetting appears in the frameworks list:

enter image description here

Xandy

Posted 2012-10-28T09:33:21.800

Reputation: 3 442

I had this same thing after uninstalling VS2015 community, my VS2010 projects all started blowing up with this. My issue was I was missing FrameworkList.xml from C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework.NETFramework\v4.0\RedistList. I copied from another machine and the problem went away.

Brian

Posted 2012-10-28T09:33:21.800

Reputation: 21

It worked! You saved my day. From my experience such issues are typical to Microsoft products. – jotbek – 2017-01-27T14:34:09.143