Uninstalling .NET Framework:
After installing all the versions of .NET I decided to uninstall each version until all versions were removed. If you uninstall .NET you must start with the highest version install on your PC and then work your way down to the lowest version number.
In this test I started by uninstalling version 3.5 and finished with 1.0. Note that the hotfix for version1.1 must be removed “after” uninstalling version 1.1
Aaron Stebner’s .NET Framework Cleanup Tool:
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/pages/8904493.aspx
"This .NET Framework cleanup tool is designed to automatically perform a set of steps to remove selected versions of the .NET Framework from a computer. It will remove files, directories, registry keys and values and Windows Installer product registration information for the .NET Framework. The tool is intended primarily to return your system to a known (relatively clean) state in case you are encountering .NET Framework installation, uninstallation, repair or patching errors so that you can try to install again."
I used this tool after using the Windows Control Panel's Add or Remove Programs uninstall option.
After using the tool only a few folders and files still remained, so I deleted these manually.
What using the Add/Remove Uninstall did not remove:
C:\WINDOWS\assembly\ (197.8MB remaining)
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5 (770KB)
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.0 (20.5MB)
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727 (2.36MB)
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705 (99.9KB)
C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.0 (13.9MB)
A total of 235MB remained.
After running Stebner’s Cleanup Tool:
C:\WINDOWS\assembly\ (68.5MB remaining)
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727 (1.49MB remains)
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705 (Folder is empty)
C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework (Folder is empty)
A total of 70MB of file still remained, which were deleted manualy.
After running Microsoft’s MSI Zap Utility:
(This command utility is part of Microsoft’s Windows Installer Cleanup Utility)
C:\WINDOWS\Installer (19.7MB Before) (14.8MB after)
Note: Service Packs are also available when using Windows Updates.
Your disk space usage may vary from the values in this article depending on which versions of .NET Framework are installed and which versions are not installed as they are not required/needed by any of the applications you have installed on your PC.
Comparing the Software Development Kit to the Redistributable:
As mentioned previously, there are two types of .NET (pronounced Dot NET), a “Redistributable” and the “SDK” (Software Distribution Kit). The Redistributable takes far less disk space as it installs only the .NET Framework common language runtime and associated files required to run applications that are installed on your PC.
The easiest way to determine how many versions of .NET are installed on your PC is to click on the Add or Remove Programs icon in the Control Panel. If you are not a software developer and or do not have Microsoft’s Visual Studio installed on your PC you should not see any .NET entries in the Add/Remove list that have the letters “SDK” as part of the name, as the “Software Development Kit” is for use by developers and as such takes up far more drive space that the “Redistributable” versions of .NET that most of use may have installed on our PC.
.NET Framework 2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) (x86)
Even though Version 2.0 of the .NET Framework SDK has been superseded by the Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5. I decided to use the 2.0 SDK because of the large number of software applications that still use this version.
Note: The SDK creates a whole new set of directories and files that are unique to the SDK that are not found/created when you only have the Redistributable installed.
Prerequisites:
You must install the .NET Framework v2.0 Redistributable prior to installing the .NET Framework 2.0 Software Development Kit. So I downloaded the file using the link listed below and installed the redistributable.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fe6f2099-b7b4-4f47-a244-c96d69c35dec&displaylang=en
NET Framework 2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) Download page:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=fe6f2099-b7b4-4f47-a244-c96d69c35dec&displaylang=en
Download file size = 354MB
Installing the 2.0 SDK resulted in:
Almost 11,000 new registry entries
Folders added: 2679
Files added: 8453
About 1GB of drive space consumed.
.NET Framework v2.0 SDK Directory and file locations:
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\CoreCon (89 KB)
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\DbgClr (160 KB)
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\MSDN\8.0\1033 (136 KB)
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft Help (71.9 MB)
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Microsoft .NET Framework SDK v2.0
(8.59 KB)
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\CAPICOM (498 KB)
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\CoreCon (2.40 MB)
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\DevHelp (13.4 KB)
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Help (3.30 MB)
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Help 8 (12.5 MB)
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSEnv (2.53 MB)
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE11 (531 KB)
(Note: MS Office is not installed on this PC)
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS Help Data (12.4 KB)
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11 (70.5 KB)
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8 (432 MB)
C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\Primary Interop Assemblies (7.77 MB)
C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v2.0 (396 MB)
C:\WINDOWS\assembly (133.9 MB)
C:\WINDOWS\Installer\{639159C2-B27B-4208-8965-D8A0AEDBDED2} (9.89 KB)
C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\Policies\x86_policy.8.0.Microsoft.VC80.ATL_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_x-ww_5f0bbcff
(7.96 KB)
C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.VC80.ATL_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.42_x-ww_6e805841
(93.5 KB)
C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.VC80.DebugCRT_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.42_x-ww_f75eb16c (3.06 MB)
Repeating the entire process again:
(No versions of .NET Installed)
All Windows XP SP2 Critial/Prority Updates Installed, IE7 not installed.
This time I started by using Windows Update Optional Update list to install the .NET 2.0 redistributable. As mentioned previously this is a prerequisite for installing the Software Development Kit. No problems were encountered.
Windows Update now showed .NET 2.0 SP1 for the redistributable was available, so I installed it. This time the PC required a reboot. Checked Windows Update one more time, no security updates or patches listed.
Next I installed the .NET SDK 2.0 - No installation problems.
No updates for the 2.0 SDK were available on Windows Update.
Total Disk Space Consumed:
1.3GB for the 2.0 SDK as opposed to only 337.6MB for the 2.0 Redistributable. With hard disk drive sizes ranging from 300GB to 1TB or more, the extra 1GB consumed by installing the SDK is insignificant. But for a laptop user who may only have a 20 or 30GB hard drive every gigabyte of disk space consumed is significant, especially if all you need is the Redistributable to run your applications.
After completing the installation and documenting the disk space usage, I checked Windows Update to see what updates if any where listed. The Net Framework 3.0 Redistributable was listed so I used Windows Update to download and install it without any problems.
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