Can a build server with .NET 4.5 installed successfully deploy a project targeting 4.0 to a server with only .NET 4.0 installed?

Question

We\'ve recently installed .NET 4.5 onto our continuous integration build server so that it can support new projects that utilize features of .NET 4.5. This build server is a

Answer 1

This occurs because 4.5 is an in-place upgrade to 4.0. When the build server compiles, by default, it will find the 4.5 assemblies even if you're targeting .NET 4.

You can correct this, but you need to add the 4.0 reference assemblies to your build server (so the compiler finds them), and not just rely on the .NET 4.5 versions.

For details, see Marc Gravell's blog post on the subject.