Non-technical person facing technical issues with .Net framework

Question

Like the title says I have near to no clue as to what is going on with the .net framework programs. I tried installing programs like discord onto my laptop only to experience a error saying "net framework is not installed" so I went and got a legit copy of .net framework 4.7 from Microsoft. It then told me I already had so-called .net framework, but all my programs are having a fit over finding .net framework 4.7. According to my laptop I have all net frameworks from 3.5 up, but I went to uninstall programs and the turn on/off windows features to which I have: - .NET Environment - .NET Extensibility 3.5 - .NET Extensibility 4.8 - ASP.NET 4.8 But nothing else I had seen in Youtube Videos. I hope I've given enough information and I'd be more than happy to support with more information on this .net framework frenzy. Thank you

Answer 1

This is one of the 'delightful' aspects of how Microsoft distributes its shared libraries...

You don't need the delevoper-level .NET installations, but you do need the end-user versions, 'Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable '

However, there's no simple way, at consumer-level, to know precisely which version any given app is built against, so you end up having to go down this list - Microsoft Support: The latest supported Visual C++ downloads - in reverse date order & keep installing them one at a time until you find the right one.

Complaints to Microsoft ;)

There is a more comprehensive list of all the historic versions at iTechtics - Download Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (All Versions) but you should be OK just using the Microsoft links.