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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-17T09:07:37+00:00

I need to include Microsoft .NET 4.5 as a prerequisite with my installation bundle,

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I need to include Microsoft .NET 4.5 as a prerequisite with my installation bundle, and I want it as automatic as possible. However, .NET should not be removed when unistalling. I think I have read just about everything on how to use DetectCondition and/or InstallCondition, but I’m still not getting it right; it is either always running the .NET installation, or never running it.

Here’s my latest setup:

<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi"
     xmlns:util="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/UtilExtension"
     xmlns:bal="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/BalExtension"
     xmlns:netfx='http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/NetFxExtension'>

  <!-- Define minimum .NET Framework version -->
  <?define NetFx45MinRelease = 377811?>
  ...
    <Chain>
      <PackageGroupRef Id="Netfx45FullPackage"/>
      ...
    </Chain>

    <PackageGroup Id="Netfx45FullPackage">
      <ExePackage Id="Netfx45Full" Cache="no" Compressed="yes" PerMachine="yes" Permanent="yes" Vital="yes"
                  SourceFile="..\..\..\..\Environment\InstallerResources\Prerequisites\dotnetfx45_full_x86_x64.exe"
                  InstallCommand="/passive /norestart"
                  DetectCondition="NETFRAMEWORK45 &gt;= $(var.NetFx45MinRelease)"
                  InstallCondition="NOT REMOVE AND (NETFRAMEWORK45 &lt; $(var.NetFx45MinRelease))" />
    </PackageGroup>

(For some reason, I had to define NetFx45MinRelease myself even though it should have been included with WixNetFxExtension.)

How can I get the settings correct?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I’m not quite sure why you’re having problems, but I just had the same task, and it (now 😉 works as intended. That is, it installs .NET 4.5 only if required, and won’t do a .NET uninstall when uninstalling the bootstrapper as a whole.

    However, .NET 4.5 can be uninstalled individually, which I think is good.

    This is what I used (most probably derived from other Stack Overflow posts):

    <PackageGroup Id="Netfx45Xxx">
    <ExePackage Id="Netfx45Xxx" Cache="no" Compressed="no" PerMachine="yes" Permanent="yes" Vital="yes" InstallCommand="/q"
        SourceFile="C:\wixtest\dotnetfx45_full_x86_x64.exe"
        DetectCondition="(Netfx4FullVersion=&quot;4.5.50709&quot;) AND (NOT VersionNT64 OR (Netfx4x64FullVersion=&quot;4.5.50709&quot;))"
        InstallCondition="(VersionNT >= v6.0 OR VersionNT64 >= v6.0) AND (NOT (Netfx4FullVersion=&quot;4.5.50709&quot; OR Netfx4x64FullVersion=&quot;4.5.50709&quot;))"/>
</PackageGroup>

    The strange thing is that you already have Permanent=”yes”, which indeed is key to keeping .NET on uninstall.

    One difference is that I have no explicit “NOT REMOVE” in the InstallCondition, maybe that is more confusing than helpful to Windows Installer…?

    I am using WiX 3.7.1224.0, which currently is the latest.

    One comment to TheESJ’s answer: even with the predefined PackageGroupRef, you can supply a local file to avoid downloading. Simply place it in a “redist” folder below your bootstrapper EXE file, and it will be taken from there if present without downloading. I found this behaviour yesterday via the log file after a faulty install.

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