Do I need to keep multiple versions of the .NET Framework installed in my system?

Question

I realize that this may sound like a bit of a dumb question, but here goes anyway...

 Several months ago, I downloaded and installed the Visual Basic trial thinking that that was the program that I needed.  As it turns out I have decided farm this part of my project out to a professional, rather than spending countless hours frustrated with attempting to do it myself.  At the time that I installed Visual Basic I was asked to .NET Framework 2.0  I have since installed two updates, version 3.0 & 3.5.  These programs are quite memory intensive and take up a great deal of hard drive space!  I am currently running WinXP on my Intel-based MacBookPro under Bootcamp.  Unfortunately, the way that the original Bootcamp beta version partitioned my hard drive, it only allows for 32 GB of my hard disk to be allocated to running WinXP This includes any & all applications, documents, etc... that you would by definition have on your computer!  As it stands currently, the .NET Framework applications are occupying 0.5 gigabytes of my hard drive.

Do I need to keep version 2.0 as well as versions 3.0 and 3.5?  Also, since I had no longer using Visual Basic, do I even need to keep the .NET framework on my system at all?


Thank you so much for your help!!!


dftmweb

Answer 1

I write code for a living so I am running all the .NET frameworks and I am only using 342 megs so there is some thing in your box taking up 150megs of space that is not related to .NET.  And if you plan to run the .NET application being developed for you then you cannot remove the.NET framework.  However you can remove the VB.NET if you are not using it because when you get the finished application you only need the .NET framework redistributable if you plan to give your application to other people to use.

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Asp.net MVP, MCPD Web C#, MCITP BI & MCTS SQL Server 2005

Answer 2

ok i feel like the first guy, may sound dumb but, i have all the frameworks installed fron 1.1 to 4, do i need to keep all? there are six of them? i have 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5 and 4 client profile and 4 extended. thank you for your time

Answer 3

First, 2,0, 3.0 and 3.5 are all ONE framework. 3.0 and 3.5 are extensions of 2.0. So, you have 1.1, 2.0/3.0/3.5 and 4.0, three full frameworks.

As to whether or not you need them, two factors apply:

Are you a developer? If not, you need only frameworks required by software you have installed. If you are a .NET developer, chances are that you will want multiple frameworks, as newer versions of Visual Studio allow you to choose which framework to target in your solutions.

If you are not a developer, and you installed .NET Framework 4.0 manually without being prompted to do so by a software package installer, your wasted your time and the disc space it occupies.