How to Install .NET Framework 3.5 on Windows 11/10 and Windows Server? , Ranjan.info

Most modern Windows apps require the .NET Framework to be installed. For example, NET Framework 4.8 is installed by default on Windows 11/10 and Windows Server 2022/2019. However, some older and older applications require the .NET Framework 3.5, 2.0, or 1.0 to be installed.

In this article, we will tell you how to install .NET 3.5 on Windows 11/10/8.1 and Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012R2.

Installing .NET Framework 3.5 on Windows 11 and 10

Check that .NET Framework 3.5 (which includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0) is not installed on your computer. Open PowerShell console as administrator and run command:

Get-WindowsCapability -Online -Name NetFx3

In our case, .NET 3.5 is not installed (State=NotPresent,

On Windows 10/11, you can install .NET Framework turn Windows features on or off Panel:

1. run command optionalfeatures.exe,
2. choose .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0) In the list of components, click OK;
3. If your computer has direct Internet access, select “”Let Windows Update download the files for you”;
4. Windows will download and install the latest version of the .NET Framework 3.5 components from the Microsoft Update servers.

If your computer is not connected to the Internet or is disconnected from the network, an error will appear while installing .NET 3.5:

Windows couldn’t complete the requested changes.
The changes couldn’t be completed. Please reboot your computer and try again
Error code: 0x8024402C

In this case, you can manually install the .NET 3.5 features from your Windows installation media. To do this, you will need an installation USB flash drive or ISO image file with your Windows version (how to check the version of Windows in the ISO image):

1. Connect your media with the Windows installation image to your computer. In my case, I have Windows 11 ISO image file. click on the file and choose Mountain To connect the image to a virtual DVD drive (or use the PowerShell command: Mount-DiskImage -ImagePath "C:\ISO\Windows11-22h2.iso" ,
2. In my case, the virtual drive with the image was assigned a drive letter E: (we will use this drive letter in the following command);
3. To install .Net 3.5 from the component source files on the installation disc, use the command:
   DISM /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /Source:E:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess
   or (a similar PowerShell command):
   Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name NetFx3~~~~ -Source E:\Sources\SxS
   

To make sure that the .NET Framework has been installed successfully, run the command:

Get-WindowsCapability -Online -Name NetFx3~~~~

Name         : NetFX3~~~~
State        : Installed
DisplayName  : .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0)
Description  : .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0)
DownloadSize : 72822163
InstallSize  : 496836410

List the versions of .NET Framework installed on your computer:

Get-ChildItem 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP' -Recurse | Get-ItemProperty -Name version -EA 0 | Where { $_.PSChildName -Match ‘^(?!S)\p{L}’} | Select PSChildName, version

How to Install .NET Framework 3.5 on Windows Server 2022/2019/2016?

NET Framework 3.5 can be installed in several ways on Windows Server 2022, 2019, 2016, and 2012 R2:

• Via Server Manager: Add Roles and Features -> Features -> .NET Framework 3.5 Features -> .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0);
• Using DISM: DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFx3 /All
• with powershell: Install-WindowsFeature NET-Framework-Core

In this case, all required .NET 3.5 installation files for your Windows Server edition will be downloaded from the Windows Update server. For this installation method to work, you need to check the following:

1. Your Windows Server must have direct Internet access. Proxy and firewall settings should not restrict access to Windows Update servers;
2. Your host should not be configured to receive updates from the local WSUS server. Check your current Windows Update settings using the Group Policy Results report (rsop.msc) or directly in the registry;
   check the value of Use WUServer Parameters in the registry:
   Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" -Name "UseWUServer" | select -ExpandProperty UseWUServer

   if the parameter value is 1, then your host is configured to receive Windows Updates from the local WSUS server. In this case, you will receive the error 0x800F0954 While installing .NET 3.5. change the registry parameter to 0 Or remove it to connect directly to Microsoft Windows Update servers.

If you can access the Internet from your Windows Server host, but it is configured to receive updates from WSUS, you will see the error 0x800f081f NET Framework while installing.

Solution: Install .Net 3.5 Online from Microsoft Servers and Ignore Local WSUS :

1. Export the current Windows Update settings from the HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate registry key to a REG file:
   reg export HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate c:\WindowsUpdateRegFile.reg
2. delete this key ( Remove-Item -Path HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate -Recurse ) and restart the service: net stop wuauserv & net start wuauserv
3. Run the .Net 3.5 installation from the web: DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFx3 /All
4. After the installation is complete, return the previous WU settings: import reg file ( Reg import c:\WindowsUpdateRegFile.reg ) and restart the Windows Update service again

If there is no direct internet access to the server, you will receive the error when you try to install .NET 3.5 on Windows Server via Server Manager 0x800F081F ,source files not found, 0x800F0950, 0x8024402c, 0x800F0906Or 0x800F0907 (Depending on the version of Windows Server).

Although .NET Framework 3.5 is listed as a feature of Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012R2, its binary files are missing from the Windows Component Store (Features on Demand concept). This is done to reduce the size of the operating system image on disk. You can check whether the .NET Framework 3.5 source files are available in Windows Server’s local component store with the command:

Get-WindowsFeature *Framework*

As you can see the status of net-framework-core feature removed,

To install net-framework core, you will need the distribution with your version of Windows Server, either as an ISO file, or as extracted to a network folder. Mount the ISO file with the Windows Server install image as a virtual drive (for example, drive D:). Now, you can install Windows features from the GUI or by using PowerShell.

You can install the .Net 3.5 feature from the Server Manager graphical console:

1. Choose .NET Framework 3.5 feature as before, but before clicking to establishclick on a small link Specify an alternate source path at the bottom of the form;
2. Specify the path to the Component Store (SXS) folder in your Windows Server distro. If you have mounted the ISO image as a virtual disk, the path may look like this D:\sources\sxs, It could also be a network share where you copied the distribution files (for example, \\fs1\iso\ws2016\sources\sxs, Then click OK.

It is very easy to install .NET Framework 3.5 features from elevated command prompt or PowerShell console. just run the command:

Dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /Source:D:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess

If you want to install a Windows Server feature using PowerShell, use the Add-WindowsFeature command:

Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework-Core -Source d:\sources\sxs

After the component installation is complete, there is no need to restart the server.

You can also copy the 2 CAB files manually microsoft-windows-netfx3... from there \sources\sxs The folder on your Windows Server install image. In this case, to install .NET 3.5, simply run the command:

dism /online /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\distrib\net35\microsoft-windows-netfx3-ondemand-package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~.cab.

Configure .NET Framework Offline Installation Options with GPO

You can configure specific settings to install Windows components from local sources or Windows Update even when using WSUS with Group Policy options Specify settings for optional component installation and component repair (located under the GPO section computer configuration , Administrative Templates , System,

Here you can specify that when installing or repairing Windows components, you should always download files from Windows Update servers (Internet) instead of local WSUS servers (“Download repair materials and optional features directly from Windows Update instead of Windows Server Update Services” alternative).

You can also specify the path to the shared folder with the Windows Server components that you want to use for offline installation.alternate source file path“Parameters:

• Specify the path of the network shared folder in UNC format (\\fs01\distr\ws22\sxs) (Here you can specify multiple UNC paths separated by semicolons: \\fs01\ws22\sxs;\\man02\ws22\sxs;\\fs03\sxs,
• It is also possible to specify a WIM file as the source: WIM:\\fso1\distr\ws16\install.wim:2 (in this matter, 2 The WIM file contains the index of your version of the Windows Server image. You can list the Windows Server versions available in a WIM file with the command: DISM /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:"\\server\distr\ws2016\install.wim" ,