If you’ve used a Windows computer for long enough, you might’ve seen an error something like “Microsoft .NET framework needs to be installed for this program to work”. Windows should have a supported .NET framework installed for most programs and games to work properly. If there is no supported .NET Framework, you are either prompted to download and install that specific version of the .NET framework or the program will not work as it should. i.e. crashes. Generally, every Windows version comes with a version of the .NET framework pre-installed. Additionally, some developers even bundle the .NET framework with their applications to avoid any problems. However, sometimes there will be updates to the .NET framework and programs may require you to have the latest .NET framework installed. If that’s the case, you need to download the .NET framework from the Microsoft website and install it manually.
However, the problem is that there is not a single page within the Microsoft website that lists all the .NET Framework downloads in one place. Add to that, for whatever reason, it is not that easy to find the download link for a specific of the .NET Framework. Trust me, I’ve been there multiple times and it is frustrating, to say the least. I thought maybe you guys might be facing the same situation as me from time to time. So, I did the work, found the download links for all the available .NET framework versions, and listed them in a good little table.
For convenience’s sake, I’ve divided all the download links according to their version numbers, service packs, system architecture (64-bit or 32-bit), and offline or online installer. Use the below download links to download the .NET framework of your choice.
All the download links below are official and from Microsoft itself. Just click on the download link of the version of your choice and the download will start instantly or you will be taken to the appropriate official Microsoft download page where you need to click a single button to download the .NET Framework.
Download Links for All .NET Framework Versions
I hope the above download links are helpful to you. I will update this article as the new versions of the .NET Framework become available. So, bookmark this page so that you’ll have easy access to all the .NET framework versions.
If you like this article, do check out the download links for Office 2016, Office 2019, and Office 365 and how to uninstall Internet Explorer.
Update: I’ve updated the article to remove out dated links and added new links. Additionally, I’ve also added links to download the new .NET Framework versions 4.8 and 4.8.1
Warning: If you use windows 8 and above. The .NET Framework 3.5 and Internet Explorer offline installer will be inside when your created the windows ISO file and the windows update only. Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 have several folder in the sources\sxs folder. Windows 10 have 4 cab file in the sources\sxs folder. But if you use the (WSUS) and the Microsoft Update Catalog, you just get the updates from the Windows 8 and above. When you run the UpdateInstaller.exe on Windows 8 and above, Net Framework 3.5 installation is not found in w62-x64\glb\sxs and above. If you use windows 7 and below, you can get them from Windows Update, Microsoft Update Catalog and the (WSUS) or here. When you run the UpdateInstaller.exe on Windows 7, their .NET Framework 3.5 and .NET Framework 4.8 is in the dotnet directory on the client. If the wsusoffline86.zip and above, wget will download. The wsusoffline85.zip and below, wget failed to download because the mkisofs.exe is unsupported scheme. You must need to update to wsusoffline86.zip preparing for the wget to download. The latest version on the download.wsusoffline.net is wsusoffline120.zip.