.NET Framework 4.5 stupid question

[Joni_78]

If I've made a simple app with VS2012, net framework 4.5, should i require W7 users in installer to download v4.5 or does that app work with 3.5?

[Andre S. Veteran]

The target framework has to be installed on any machine you want to application to run on. If the app targets .NET 4.5, .NET 4.5 has to be installed for the app to run.

[Joni_78]

Thanks

[DDStriker]

If I've made a simple app with VS2012, net framework 4.5, should i require W7 users in installer to download v4.5 or does that app work with 3.5?

You should be able to set vs2012 to use .net 3.5

[ajua]

If your application is not making use any of the features of the latest .NET Frameworks, compile it against 3.5. This way you don't have to worry about your users having installed 4.0 or 4.5, specially if your app doesn't need them.

[libertas83]

In the end, you should program in whichever .NET version you want to use. As long as you handle the installer properly, it won't matter if they have .NET Framework 4.5 installed or not because your installer should handle it.

I would recommend staying with 4.5 because you have a much more complete API with features that you can use with tons of improvements you can use, including security improvements.

For your installer, it should detect if the version required is there and if not, install it. For .NET Framework 4+ you can have the Client Profile installed which is a smaller version of the Framework to make it easier for end user installs. Microsoft should have plenty of documentation on how best to handle it.