Before I start developing a desktop application, I was wondering how large the installer will turn out to be if I build it in .NET?
Now .NET probably is 5 years old. Do we still have to include the run time with the application? Or can we assume that most user will have it installed on their system? Does Vista ships with .NET pre installed? Lastly can we safely assume most XP users already have CLR installed on their system?
Its easy to determine if the .NET version you’re targeting is installed and, if its not, instruct users on where to download it. I’m not a fan of redist-ing the installer bootstrap; its something a hacker would do. Let the user get it directly from the source.
Vista ships with 3.5.
XP SP2 ships with 2.0XP SP2 is required for .NET 2.0, but .NET is never installed by default for XP systems; its always optional. That’s pretty much the minimum spec for any MS desktop system; if they are running XP sp1 or earlier I’d avoid them, unless you have specific requirements (embedded systems, dumb/stubborn user base, etc).edit: I could have sworn SP2 came with .NET 2.0, but I can’t find any definitive information about this.