.NET Framework version history

Microsoft started development on the .NET Framework in the late 1990s originally under the name of Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS).

[1] The first version of .NET Framework was released on 13 February 2002, bringing managed code to Windows NT 4.0, 98, 2000, ME and XP.

The .NET Framework family also includes two versions for mobile or embedded device use.

[4] Notes: The first version of the .NET Framework was released on 15 January 2002 for Windows 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP.

Mainstream support for this version ended on 10 July 2007, and extended support ended on 14 July 2009, with the exception of Windows XP Media Center and Tablet PC editions.

[35] .NET Framework 1.0 is supported on Windows 98, ME, NT 4.0 (with Service Pack 6a), 2000, XP, and Server 2003.

It is available on its own as a redistributable package or in a software development kit, and was published on 3 April 2003.

In addition, .NET Framework 3.5 also installs .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 and 3.0 SP1 (with the later 3.5 SP1 instead installing 2.0 SP2 and 3.0 SP2), which adds some methods and properties to the BCL classes in version 2.0 which are required for version 3.5 features such as Language Integrated Query (LINQ).

[54] As with previous versions, a new .NET Compact Framework 3.5 was released in tandem with this update in order to provide support for additional features on Windows Mobile and Windows Embedded CE devices.

[6] Starting from Windows 8, .NET Framework 3.5 is an optional feature that can be turned on or off in control panel.

Two new assemblies for web development, System.Web.Abstraction and System.Web.Routing, have been added; these are used in the ASP.NET MVC framework and, reportedly, will be used in the future release of ASP.NET Forms applications.

Support for .NET Framework 4.0 ended on 12 April 2016 and is no longer providing technical support, bug fixes, or security fixes for .NET Framework 4.0 vulnerabilities which may be subsequently reported or discovered.

[66] On 28 July 2009, a second release of the .NET Framework 4 beta was made available with experimental software transactional memory support.

[68] At the same time, Microsoft announced the expected launch date for .NET Framework 4 as 22 March 2010.

[71] On 18 April 2011, version 4.0.1 was released supporting some customer-demanded fixes for Windows Workflow Foundation.

[72][73] Its design-time component, which requires Visual Studio 2010 SP1, adds a workflow state machine designer.

On 27 October 2011, version 4.0.2 was released supporting some new features of Microsoft SQL Server.

[76][77] After the release of the .NET Framework 4, Microsoft released a set of enhancements, named Windows Server AppFabric,[78] for application server capabilities in the form of AppFabric Hosting[79][80] and in-memory distributed caching support.

.NET Framework 4.5 was released on 15 August 2012;[81] a set of new or improved features were added into this version.

Metro-style apps were originally designed for specific form factors and leverage the power of the Windows operating system.

It also lets extension developers easily encapsulate code and avoid fragile hard dependencies.

[94] For Windows Forms applications, improvements were made for high DPI scenarios.

For ASP.NET, higher reliability HTTP header inspection and modification methods are available as is a new way to schedule background asynchronous worker tasks.

WPF and Windows Forms both have received updates for high DPI scenarios.

An update for Visual Studio 2017 was released on this date to add support for targeting .NET Framework 4.7.

[102] The promised standalone installer for Windows 7 and later was released on 2 May 2017,[103] but it had prerequisites not included with the package.

[109] Amongst the changes are improvements to ASP.NET, BCL, CLR, ClickOnce, Networking, SQL, WCF, Windows Forms, Workflow and WPF.

[111][112] It was the final version of .NET Framework released after Windows Vista reached end of life on 11 April 2017, with future work going into the .NET Core platform that eventually became .NET 5 and onwards.

The most-recent release is 4.8.0 Build 4115, with an offline installer size of 115 MB (121,307,088 bytes) and a digital signature date of May 1, 2021.

The most-recent release is 4.8.1 Build 9195, with an offline installer size of 74 MB (77,668,504 bytes) and a digital signature date of September 28, 2023.