OS Compatibility for various .NET Framework versions

Question

What are the minimum OS requirements for each of the .Net frameworks? E.g. for which version is it impossible to run each OS on:

• Windows 95
• Windows 98
• Windows 98SE
• Windows ME
• Windows NT 3.x
• Windows NT 4
• Windows 2000

I believe all .Net frameworks are compatible w/ XP, Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008 (please correct me on that if wrong).

Answer 1

1.x and 2.0 work all the way back to Win98 but stop before Windows 8 (not verified).

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.NET Framework 2.0 Supported Operating Systems according to Microsoft:

• Windows 98
• Windows ME
• Windows 2000
• Windows XP
• Windows Vista (included with OS)
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows Server 2008 (included with OS)

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.NET Framework 3.0 Supported OSs:

• Windows XP SP2
• Windows Vista (included with OS)
• Windows 7
• Windows 8
• Windows 2003 Server Service Pack 1 (SP1)

Note: Windows Vista comes with .NET Framework 3.0. Standalone .NET Framework 3.0 packages are not required and not supported on Vista.

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.NET Framework 3.5 Supported OSs according to Microsoft:

• Windows XP
• Windows Vista
• Windows 7 (included with OS)
• Windows 8 & 8.1 see
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Server 2012 & 2012 R2 see

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.NET Framework 4.0 Supported OSs according to Microsoft:

• Windows XP (but not Starter, Media Center or Tablet editions)
• Windows Vista
• Windows 7
• Windows 8
• Windows 10
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows Server 2008

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.NET Framework 4.5 Supported OSs according to Microsoft:

• Windows Vista SP2
• Windows 7
• Windows 8 (included with OS)
• Windows 10
• Windows Server 2008 SP2/R2
• Windows Server 2012 (included with OS)

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.NET Framework 4.5.1/4.5.2/4.6 Supported OSs according to Microsoft:

• Windows Vista SP2
• Windows 7 SP1
• Windows 8
• Windows 8.1 (included with OS)
• Windows 10 (4.6 included with OS)
• Windows Server 2008 SP2/R2
• Windows Server 2012 (included with OS)

Answer 2

.Net 1, 1.1 and 2.0 are supported on all from Windows 98 / Windows 2000 + NOT windows NT or windows 95.

.Net 3.0 / 3.5 is supported only on Windows XP/ Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008 editions. Windows 98 and 2000 are no longer supported. See MSDN

Answer 3

Microsoft .NET framework is supported on Windows 98 and up starting at version 1.0, with the following exceptions:

Windows NT
Windows Server 2003 (Itanium-based)

As an added note, I've been able to run .NET IL Portable Executables on platforms up to version 2.0 fairly reliably through Mono on Linux based machines. Though it does run better if it is compiled in Mono. For odd some reason, PE's compiled with the Mono package are closer to the written standards of the .NET IL than when compiled with the Microsoft .NET compilers.

.NET 2.0 states on MSDN that it is compatible with Windows 98

.NET 3.0/3.5 requires XP or above:

Microsoft Windows 2003 Server Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Windows XP SP2
Windows Vista *

Answer 4

Update: Apparently I was wrong. As pointed by other people, MSDN states 2.0 and below work on Win 98 as well.

All .Net versions work on XP SP2 and above, although some classes also offer support for Vista specific features and fail gracefully on XP. I think 1.0 used to work on Windows 2000, but every other released .Net expects XP or higher.