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Unless you've been living under a rock for the last month, you almost certainly know that
Microsoft recently released the .NET Framework Version 2.0. The first step to developing
great applications using this new technology is to get it installed and start exploring
the many resources available in the Software Development Kit (SDK). This article will walk
you through the steps involved and will hopefully relieve some of the anxiety involved for
those of you who are new to the world of .NET.
What is the Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0?
Although it's not really the point of this article to explain the .NET Framework, I figured a
brief description of what we'll be installing might be appropriate.
According to Microsoft:
The .NET Framework is a development and execution environment that allows
different programming languages & libraries to work together seamlessly to
create Windows-based applications that are easier to build, manage, deploy, and
integrate with other networked systems.
So what does that mean? Basically, if you're writing code for the Microsoft platform these days,
you're most likely writing for the .NET Framework. All the latest Microsoft devlopment languages
and tools are based on .NET. This includes ASP.NET, Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++, and Visual J#.
They all produce code that runs on top of the .NET Framework.
If you'd like more information about the role the .NET Framework plays, you might want to check out
the
Microsoft .NET Framework Developer Center: Getting Started
page.
What is the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 SDK?
Software Development Kits or SDKs have a long history in the development community. They were
around before software stopped shipping with manuals, but that's when they really became important.
An SDK usually includes all the supporting documentation and code examples that a developer needs
in order to write code for the platform that the SDK is related to.
I'll again turn to Microsoft for the official definition:
The Microsoft® .NET Framework Software Development
Kit (SDK) version 2.0 includes everything developers need to write, build, test,
and deploy .NET Framework applications--documentation, samples, and command-line
tools and compilers. You must install the .NET Framework Redistributable Package
version 2.0 prior to installing the .NET Framework 2.0 SDK.
So why is this packaged separately from the .NET Framework itself? Well, since the code that you write for
the .NET Framework may run on a very large number of machines and those machines all need to have the
.NET Framework installed, it'd be a huge waste of hard drive space and bandwidth if all those
non-development machines had to download and install the developer documentation and samples
that they'd never use just to get the .NET runtime components.
How Do I Get the Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 and SDK?
So now that you know what the .NET Framework 2.0 and SDK are and have decided that you want to install them,
the next question is usually, how do I get them? Well, that's easy. Both the .NET Framework 2.0 and SDK
are available for free download from Microsoft.
You can find a list of all the different flavors of available .NET downloads from the
Microsoft .NET Framework Developer Center: SDKs, Redistributables & Service Packs
page, but we're only really interested in two of them:
.NET Framework 2.0 SDK x86
The Microsoft® .NET Framework Software Development Kit (SDK) version 2.0 includes everything developers
need to write, build, test, and deploy .NET Framework applications—documentation, samples, and command-line
tools and compilers. You must install the .NET Framework Redistributable Package version 2.0 prior to
installing the .NET Framework 2.0 SDK.
.NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package (x86)
The Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 redistributable package is the most recent update to the Microsoft
.NET Framework and includes everything you need to run applications developed using the .NET Framework.
As it mentions, in order to install the SDK, you'll first need to download and install the .NET Framework Version 2.0
Redistributable Package. The .NET Framework setup (dotnetfx.exe) is only about 23 MB, but the SDK
(setup.exe) tips
the scales at over 360 MB so you'll probably want to start the download and then go get lunch or start it at the end
of the day so that it'll be done waiting for you in the morning. Just make sure you remember where you save the files...
especially the SDK since its file name is so non-descript.
Installing the .NET Framework Version 2.0
Start by finding the files that you just downloaded. The Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package
is the one named dotnetfx.exe. Setup is extremely simple. Simply double-click the file to run it and
you'll be prompted with a standard Microsoft setup wizard. After accepting the license agreement there's not much
else to do... setup proceeds pretty much on its own.
Figure 1 - Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Setup
The setup program will ask that you close any applications that may interfere with setup.
I found it curious that it asked me to close Outlook, but I did so and setup continued without incident.
Figure 2 - Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Setup - Close Files In Use
Figure 3 - Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Setup - Copying Files and Updating Registry
Figure 4 - Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Setup - Setup Complete
The only other thing of note is that the setup program will stop IIS for a short time during installation.
It's not a big deal, but you should be careful to install at an opportune moment if you're installing on a
live web server.
Installing the .NET Framework 2.0 SDK
Once you've installed the .NET Framework you can proceed with installation of the SDK. Return to the
folder that you saved the download files to and run the setup.exe file. Installation of the
SDK is similar to that of the .NET Framework.
Figure 5 - Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 SDK Setup
Figure 6 - Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 SDK Setup - License / Configuration
The setup again gives you very few options. This screen is the only one that gives you
any real options. Unless you have a reason to not install something, there's no reason not to
just install them all.
Figure 7 - Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 SDK Setup - Installation Options
Figure 8 - Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 SDK Setup - Installation Location
Figure 9 - Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 SDK Setup - Installation
Figure 10 - Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 SDK Setup - Setup Complete
Unlike the .NET Framework, completing installation of the SDK requires a restart of the
computer. After restart they'll be a new folder on the computer's Start Menu containing
shortcuts to the documentation, tools and samples just installed.
Figure 11 - Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 SDK Start Menu Items
Of particular interest to most users are the Documentation and the extremely
helpful Quickstart Tutorials.
Figure 12 - Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 SDK - Documentation
While the documentation is ready to use right out of the box, the QuickStarts
take a little more setup. They include their own wizard that will walk you
through the process of installing a database if you don't already have one and
compiling the QuickStart samples.
Figure 13 - Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 SDK - QuickStart Configuration
Taking the time to set up the QuickStarts is well worth it. Like their .NET 1.x
counterparts, the QuickStarts contain a wealth of information, including working
sample code for almost all your basic tasks.
Figure 14 - Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 SDK - QuickStart Tutorials
Conclusion
I hope this brief overview has helped you understand what to expect when installing the latest version of the
.NET Framework and the associated SDK. There's no time like the present to get started learning .NET and
if you download and install the .NET Framework Version 2.0, you'll be using the best .NET ever!
Additional Information
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