exploring .NET 3.5 with WinXP

[Paul Chen]

I intend to find out what .NET Framework 3.5 is, so I installed it into my existing Windows XP Service Pack 2. But first I have to install Windows Installer 3.1 and it needs to restart Windows. Then I installed .NET v3.5, and it also needs to restart Windows.

When I get into Add or Remove Programs, my previous .NET v2.0 has been removed, and replaced by its .NET v2.0 Service Pack 1. The disk space is huge (186.46MB). The .NET 3.5 package will install .NET 3.0 Service Pack 1 (245.66MB), .NET 3.5 (48.24MB), XPS 1 (shared component) and MSXML6 (1.31MB).

Then I draft a comparison chart for each edition of .NET Framework as follows:
%windir% ---- C# compiler version type ----- web browser version (reflected in Maxthon 2.0)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
v2.0.50727 --- 8.00.50727.1433 (2005) ------ .NET CLR 2.0.50727
v3.0 ------------- <<< not available (wpf) ------- .NET CLR 3.0.04506.48
v3.5 ------------- 3.5.21022.8 (2008) ------------- .NET CLR 3.5.21022.8

Legends used:
%windir% represents "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\"
web browser version uses JavaScript document.write to generate
Maxthon 2 is the web browser that uses IE engine

After that I will compile a C# WinForm apps under each edition, except v3.0 where csc.exe not found. The executable file size done by .NET 2.0 is smaller than .NET 3.5 (50%).

In conclusion, .NET CLR 2.0.50727 will be used in Windows XP. Whoa!