Microsoft started development on the .NET Framework in the late 1990s originally under the name of Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS). By late 2001 the first beta versions of .NET Framework 1.0 were released. 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.
Since its initial release, Microsoft has issued nine subsequent upgrades to the .NET Framework, with seven coinciding with new releases of Visual Studio. Notably, versions 2.0 and 4.0 introduced significant updates to Common Language Runtime (CLR), enhancing performance, security, and language interoperability. In cases where the CLR version remains unchanged, newer framework releases typically replace previous ones through in-place updates.
The .NET Framework family also includes two versions for mobile or embedded device use. A reduced version of the framework, the .NET Compact Framework, is available on Windows CE platforms, including Windows Mobile devices such as smartphones. Additionally, the .NET Micro Framework is targeted at severely resource-constrained devices.
.NET Framework 4.8 was announced as the last major version of .NET Framework, with future work going into the rewritten and cross-platform .NET Core platform (later, simply .NET), which shipped as .NET 5 in November 2020. However, .NET Framework 4.8.1 was released in August 2022.
Overview +Overview of .NET Framework release historyVersionCLRReleasedateSupportendedVisual StudioIncluded inCan be installed onReplacesWindowsWindows ServerWindowsWindows Server1.01.02002-01-15 Visual Studio .NET 2002NT 4.0 SP6a, 98, 98SE, Me, 2000, XPNT 4.0 SP6a, 2000, 20031.0 SP1↑2002-03-19 ↑↑↑1.0 SP2↑2002-08-07 XP SP1↑↑↑1.0 SP3↑2004-08-302009-07-14 ↑↑↑1.11.12003-04-09 Visual Studio .NET 20032003 (x86)NT 4.0 SP6a, 98, 98SE, Me, 2000, XP, VistaNT 4.0 SP6a, 2000, 2003 (x64), 20081.01.1 SP1↑2004-08-302013-10-08 XP SP2, SP32003 SP1, SP2 (x86)↑↑↑2.02.02005-10-27 Visual Studio 20052003 R298, 98SE, Me, 2000 SP3, XP SP22000 SP3, 20032.0 SP1↑2007-11-19 20082000 SP4, XP SP22000 SP4, 2003 SP1↑2.0 SP2↑2008-08-112011-07-12 2008 SP2, 2008 R2↑↑↑3.02.02006-11-06 Visual Studio 2008VistaXP SP22003 SP12.03.0 SP1↑2007-11-19 Vista SP12008↑↑↑3.0 SP2↑2008-08-112011-07-12 Vista SP22008 SP2, 2008 R2↑↑↑3.52.02007-11-19 Visual Studio 2008XP SP2, Vista2003 SP1, 20082.0, 3.03.5 SP1↑2008-08-112029-01-09Visual Studio 2008 SP17, 8, 8.1, 10, 112008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2, v1709-v20H2, 2016-2022, v23H2, 2025↑↑↑4.042010-04-122016-01-12Visual Studio 2010XP SP3, Vista SP1, 72003 SP2, 2008, 2008 R24.5↑2012-08-152016-01-12Visual Studio 201282012Vista SP2, 7 SP12008 SP2, 2008 R2 SP14.04.5.1↑2013-10-172016-01-12Visual Studio 20138.12012 R2Vista SP2, 7 SP1, 82008 SP2, 2008 R2 SP1, 20124.0, 4.54.5.2↑2014-05-052022-04-26Visual Studio 2015Vista SP2, 7 SP1, 8, 8.12008 SP2, 2008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R24.0-4.5.14.6↑2015-07-202022-04-26Visual Studio 201510 v1507Vista SP2, 7 SP1, 8, 8.1 Update2008 SP2, 2008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2 Update4.0-4.5.24.6.1↑2015-11-302022-04-26Visual Studio 2015 Update 110 v15117 SP1, 8, 8.1 Update, 10 v15072008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2 Update4.0-4.64.6.2↑2016-08-022027-01-12Visual Studio 2017 15.010 v160720167 SP1, 8.1 Update, 10 v1507-v15112008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2 Update4.0-4.6.14.7↑2017-04-05rowspan=5 Visual Studio 2017 15.110 v17037 SP1, 8.1 Update, 10 v16072008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2 Update, 20164.0-4.6.24.7.1↑2017-10-17Visual Studio 2017 15.510 v1709v17097 SP1, 8.1 Update, 10 v1607-v17032008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2 Update, 20164.0-4.74.7.2↑2018-04-30Visual Studio 2017 15.810 v1803-v1809v1803-v1809, 20197 SP1, 8.1 Update, 10 v1607-v17092008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2 Update, 2016, v17094.0-4.7.14.8↑2019-04-18Visual Studio 2019 16.310 v1903-v22H2, 11 v21H2v1903-v20H2, 20227 SP1, 8.1 Update, 10 v1607-v18092008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2 Update, 2016, v1709-v1809, 20194.0-4.7.24.8.1↑2022-08-09Visual Studio 2022 17.311 v22H2-v26H2v23H2, 202510 v20H2-v22H2, 11 v21H2v20H2, 20224.0-4.8 Notes:
a. .NET Framework 1.0 is an integral component of Windows XP Media Center Edition and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Installation CDs for the Home edition and the Professional edition of Windows XP SP1, SP2 or SP3 come with .NET Framework 1.0 installation packages. b. Installation CDs for the Home edition and the Professional edition of Windows XP SP2 and SP3 come with .NET Framework 1.1 installation packages. c. .NET Framework is not automatically installed with this operating system. It must be installed either from a Windows installation media or from the Internet on demand. Control Panel or Server Manager always attempts the latter. d. This date applies only when running on Windows 10 version 1809, Windows Server 2019 or later. On older versions of Windows, .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 adopts the lifecycle of the underlying Windows operating system.
.NET Framework 1.0 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.
On 19 June 2001, the tenth anniversary of the release of Visual Basic, .NET Framework 1.0 Beta 2 was released.
.NET Framework 1.0 is supported on Windows 98, Me, NT 4.0 (with Service Pack 6a), 2000, XP, and Server 2003. Applications utilizing .NET Framework 1.0 will also run on computers with .NET Framework 1.1 installed, which supports additional operating systems.
Service Pack 1 The .NET Framework 1.0 Service Pack 1 was released on 19 March 2002.
Service Pack 2 .NET Framework 1.0 Service Pack 2 was released on 7 August 2002. It is the first commercially released version of .NET Framework to be included as part of a Windows operating systems, shipping with the installation media of Windows XP SP1 as an optional component.
Service Pack 3 .NET Framework 1.0 Service Pack 3 was released on 30 August 2004.
.NET Framework 1.1 Version 1.1 is the first minor .NET Framework upgrade. It is available on its own as a redistributable package or in a software development kit, and was published on 3 April 2003. It is also part of the second release of Visual Studio .NET 2003. This is the first version of the .NET Framework to be included as part of the Windows operating system, shipping with Windows Server 2003. Mainstream support for .NET Framework 1.1 ended on 14 October 2008, and extended support ended on 8 October 2013. .NET Framework 1.1 provides full backward compatibility to version 1.0, except in rare instances where an application will not run because it checks the version number of a library.
Changes in 1.1 include: Built-in support for mobile ASP.NET controls, which was previously available as an add-on Enables Windows Forms assemblies to execute in a semi-trusted manner from the Internet Enables Code Access Security in ASP.NET applications Built-in support for ODBC and Oracle Database, which was previously available as an add-on .NET Compact Framework, a version of the .NET Framework for small devices Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) support
.NET Framework 1.1 is supported on Windows 98, Me, NT 4.0 (with Service Pack 6a), 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, and Server 2008.
Service Pack 1 The .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1 was released on 30 August 2004. It requires Windows NT 4.0 SP6a plus Windows Installer 2.0. It is the last version to support Windows NT 4.0 SP6a, Windows 2000 RTM–SP2 and Windows XP RTM–SP1.
.NET Framework 2.0 Version 2.0 was released on 27 October 2005. It was also released along with Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and BizTalk 2006. A software development kit for this version was released on 29 November 2006. Support ended on 12 July 2011. It is the last version to support Windows 98, Windows 2000 SP3, Windows Me and Windows Server 2003 RTM.
Changes in 2.0 include: Full 64-bit computing support for both the x64 and the IA-64 hardware platforms Microsoft SQL Server integration: Instead of using T-SQL, one can build stored procedures and triggers in any of the .NET-compatible languages A new hosting API for native applications wishing to host an instance of the .NET runtime: The new API gives a fine grain control on the behavior of the runtime with regards to multithreading, memory allocation and assembly loading. It was initially developed to efficiently host the runtime in Microsoft SQL Server, which implements its own scheduler and memory manager. New personalization features for ASP.NET, such as support for themes, skins, master pages and webparts .NET Micro Framework, a version of the .NET Framework related to the Smart Personal Objects Technology initiative Membership provider Partial classes Nullable types Anonymous methods Iterators Data tables Common Language Runtime (CLR) 2.0 Language support for generics built directly into the .NET CLR
.NET Framework 2.0 is supported on Windows 98, Me, 2000 (with Service Pack 3 or higher), XP (with Service Pack 2 or higher), Server 2003, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2. An unofficial backport for Windows 95 was created in 2024. Applications utilizing .NET Framework 2.0 will also run on computers with .NET Framework 3.0 or 3.5 installed, which supports additional operating systems.
Service Pack 1 The .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 was released on 19 November 2007.Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 (x86) microsoft.com It requires Windows 2000 with SP4.
Service Pack 2 The .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 2 was released on 11 August 2008. microsoft.com It requires Windows 2000 with SP4 plus KB835732 or KB891861 update, Windows XP with SP2 plus Windows Installer 3.1. It is the last version to support Windows 2000 SP4 although there have been some unofficial workarounds to use a subset of the functionality from Version 3.5 in Windows 2000.
.NET Framework 3.0
.NET Framework 3.0, formerly called WinFX, was released on 6 November 2006. It includes a new set of managed code APIs that are an integral part of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. It is also available for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 as a download. There are no major architectural changes included with this release; .NET Framework 3.0 uses the same CLR as .NET Framework 2.0. Unlike the previous major .NET releases there was no .NET Compact Framework release made as a counterpart of this version. Version 3.0 of the .NET Framework shipped with Windows Vista. It also shipped with Windows Server 2008 as an optional component (disabled by default).
.NET Framework 3.0 consists of four major new components: Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), formerly code-named Avalon: A new user interface subsystem and API based on XAML markup language, which uses 3D computer graphics hardware and Direct3D technologies Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), formerly code-named Indigo: A service-oriented messaging system which allows programs to interoperate locally or remotely similar to web services Windows Workflow Foundation (WF): Allows building task automation and integrated transactions using workflows Windows CardSpace, formerly code-named InfoCard: A software component which securely stores a person's digital identities and provides a unified interface for choosing the identity for a particular transaction, such as logging into a website
.NET Framework 3.0 is supported on Windows XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008, and Server 2008 R2. Applications utilizing .NET Framework 3.0 will also run on computers with .NET Framework 3.5 installed, which supports additional operating systems.
Service Pack 1 .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1 was released on 19 November 2007.
Service Pack 2 .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 2 was released on 11 August 2008.
.NET Framework 3.5