[wix-devs] v4 - which .NET Framework?

Wed Aug 3 09:06:48 PDT 2016

My vote would be for installing the newest .Net framework that will install on all the OS's we support, but only do it if the minimum required version is not present. I don't like the idea of installing unsupported or older versions just because it's the minimum requirement.

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-devs [mailto:wix-devs-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of John Cooper
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2016 8:10 AM
To: WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List <wix-devs at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: Re: [wix-devs] v4 - which .NET Framework?

To my understanding, 4.5 and 4.5.1 have been sunsetted, making 4.5.2 the lowest supported version.  In my division, it means our products have a dependency on 4.6 or 4.6.1 and my bootstrapper has one on 4.5.2.

I agree in general that the Framework version should be the lowest supported version.

--
John Merryweather Cooper
Senior Software Engineer -- Integration Development Group -- Enterprise Notification Service Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.® | Lenexa, KS  66214 | Office:  913-341-3434x431050 JoCooper at jackhenry.com

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-devs [mailto:wix-devs-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of Bob Arnson
Sent: Tuesday, August 2, 2016 5:12 PM
To: WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List <wix-devs at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: Re: [wix-devs] v4 - which .NET Framework?

The e-mail below is from an external source.  Please do not open attachments or click links from an unknown or suspicious origin.

Well, you point out why I don't care a whole lot... :) The easiest answer is to just always ship the latest version of .NET that's available on WU, as most everyone will already have it. If it weren't for a managed BA, I'd suggest not including .NET in the chain at all. 

That said, I'm also for using what's getting the most testing during development. Is it realistic to say we support Vista if nobody's using it? (Just an example; I imagine there are a few die-hards using Server 2008.)

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-devs [mailto:wix-devs-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of Sean Hall
Sent: Tuesday, 2 August, 2016 17:42
To: WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List <wix-devs at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: Re: [wix-devs] v4 - which .NET Framework?

For 4.5.2, I'm thinking about the error third from the bottom from the table at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh925569(v=vs.110).aspx.
I guess my memory is faulty, since I thought I saw this on more than just Server 2012.  Remember, the only way Win8+ doesn't have .NET 4.x is that the Windows Feature was turned off/uninstalled.

For the future question, unless we move from WiX v4 to v5 really fast, I was trying to point out that we're going to end up supporting an OS and/or .NET version that isn't supported by Microsoft.

On Tue, Aug 2, 2016 at 3:57 PM, Bob Arnson <bob at firegiant.com> wrote:

> I'd put it this way: As we're not (currently) targeting later than 
> .NET
> 4.0 anyway, we can take advantage of that to avoid requiring a later 
> version of the Framework in our installer. If we chose to target a 
> later framework, I wouldn't say we should avoid doing so just because 
> it streamlines the installer. (And I don't care in the slightest for 
> Vista; it's still in extended support but Microsoft is ignoring it 
> even for non-dev products like Office.)
>
> The 4.5.2 redist will install on Windows 8+. The 4.6.x redists will 
> fail if on Windows 8.1 and KB2919355 isn't installed.
>
> Not understanding the question on v4.0...?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: wix-devs [mailto:wix-devs-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On 
> Behalf Of Sean Hall
> Sent: Tuesday, 2 August, 2016 15:01
> To: WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List <wix-devs at lists.wixtoolset.org>
> Subject: Re: [wix-devs] v4 - which .NET Framework?
>
> Let me see if I understand.  Our low bar is VS2010 which corresponds 
> to .NET 4.0.  Since we want to avoid upgrading someone's .NET, that 
> means that our compile target is .NET 4.0.  Even though VS2010 works 
> on XP, we're not supporting XP (note: we're not blocking it today) and 
> only supporting Vista
> SP2+ (because it's still supported by Microsoft today?).  Since 4.5.2 
> SP2+ is
> currently supported on all of our supported OS's, that's what we'll 
> set as the Prereq package in our bundle (note: this package will only 
> work on Vista/7, missing .NET 4 on 8+ means that a Windows feature 
> needs to be installed).  We'll modify the InstallCondition to only 
> install if the prereq BA is running.  We're going to switch to the 
> full redist package because the web redist for 4.5.2 is actually less 
> efficient that the full redist when it needs to be installed (note: to 
> counteract this, we need to make the package always uncompressed 
> otherwise our bundle is going to be huge).
>
> Question for the future: what happens if we ship v4.0 after Vista 
> and/or
> 4.5.2 loses support?
>
> On Tue, Aug 2, 2016 at 12:13 PM, Bob Arnson <bob at firegiant.com> wrote:
>
> > 4.6 is still supported:
> > https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2015/12/09/support-ending-fo
> > r-
> > the-net-framework-4-4-5-and-4-5-1/
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: wix-devs [mailto:wix-devs-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On 
> > Behalf Of Rob Mensching
> > Sent: Tuesday, 2 August, 2016 13:08
> > To: WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List 
> > <wix-devs at lists.wixtoolset.org>
> > Subject: Re: [wix-devs] v4 - which .NET Framework?
> >
> > We could install many different versions of .NET Framework in the 
> > Bundle but I was trying to keep it simpler than that. We don't 
> > support installing WiX Toolset on XP. So Vista is the lowest bar. My 
> > understanding is v4.6.0 isn't supported. So if v4.6.1 doesn't 
> > support Vista I think the simple answer is v4.5.2 everywhere. I'd 
> > only really want to do the more complicated scenario below if there 
> > isn't a single .NET Framework that supports all our target OS's (aka: Vista+).
> >
> > As for not up to date machines, we should either solve the problem 
> > or ensure there is a good error message in mbapreq. This is the same 
> > experience everyone else uses so it might as well be good.
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: wix-devs [mailto:wix-devs-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On 
> > Behalf Of Sean Hall
> > Sent: Tuesday, August 2, 2016 8:42 AM
> > To: WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List 
> > <wix-devs at lists.wixtoolset.org>
> > Subject: Re: [wix-devs] v4 - which .NET Framework?
> >
> > If we're going to target a lower version of .NET than the one that 
> > the bundle includes, then there's no reason for us to pick only one 
> > version of .NET for the bundle.  We can set it up such that it 
> > installs .NET 4.0 on XP SP3, .NET 4.6 on Vista SP2, and .NET 4.6.1 
> > on
> Win 7 SP1 and later.
> >
> > The question then becomes, what happens when there is no 4.x version 
> > of .NET installed on the machine and the version of .NET we have in 
> > the bundle can't be installed on the current OS.  For instance,
> > 4.6.1 cannot be installed on completely unpatched versions of 
> > Windows (I don't remember off the top of my head which ones), it 
> > requires one (or
> > more) Windows Updates and/or service packs.  Do we just pop up a 
> > message saying that they need to update their OS?  Do we ask them to 
> > enable the .NET feature in Windows, or add functionality to burn to 
> > do
> it ourselves?
> >
> > Also, Phill mentioned switching to a Redist version.  I'm not sure 
> > where that came from, or why we would want to do that.  If that's 
> > because of layout, then I think there's a feature that could be 
> > written for Burn where it can support using a Web version for 
> > install and a Redist version for layout.
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