When attempting to launch a C#/.NET application on a Windows XP installation without the correct .NET Framework installed, the app simply crashes with the message:
---------------------------
ThisApp.exe - Application Error
---------------------------
The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135).
Click on OK to terminate the application.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------
Which is honestly pretty meaningless to a Joe User, especially since the error code could refer to things other than .NET Framework not being present.
Is it somehow possible to crash with a more meaningful message? (Something like "This application requires .NET Framework 3.0 to run. Please download it at http://www.example.com/")
Edit:
Alright, I did some further testing and found out something quite interesting.
On a clean Windows XP SP3 install (with no .NET Framework installed), the app will always crash with the above message, regardless what .NET Framework version it's targeting, except .NET 4.5 and .NET 4.5.1, which show an even worse message:
---------------------------
path\to\ThisApp.exe
---------------------------
path\to\ThisApp.exe is not a valid Win32 application.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------
Now the interesting thing with Windows Vista and further is that these actually take the ThisApp.exe.config file into consideration when launching the app.
On a clean Windows Vista SP2 install (with .NET 3.5 installed by default), targeting .NET 4.0 and above with .exe.config causes the following message to appear:
---------------------------
ThisApp.exe - .NET Framework Initialization Error
---------------------------
To run this application, you first must install one of the following versions of the .NET Framework:
v4.0
Contact your application publisher for instructions about obtaining the appropriate version of the .NET Framework.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------
Now without .exe.config, this shows up instead:
---------------------------
ThisApp.exe - .NET Framework Initialization Error
---------------------------
To run this application, you first must install one of the following versions of the .NET Framework:
v4.0.30319
Contact your application publisher for instructions about obtaining the appropriate version of the .NET Framework.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------
A very minor change, I know, but I'm going somewhere with this. It's interesting to note that the version number (v4.0 or v4.0.30319) stays the same even when targeting .NET 4.5 and 4.5.1.
Now on a clean Windows 7 SP1 install (with .NET 4.0 Client Profile installed by default), targeting .NET 4.0 (Full) and above with .exe.config causes the message that was mentioned here to appear:
---------------------------
ThisApp.exe - .NET Framework Initialization Error
---------------------------
To run this application, you first must install one of the following versions of the .NET Framework:
.NETFramework,Version=v4.0
Would you like to download and install .NETFramework,Version=v4.0 now?
---------------------------
Yes No
---------------------------
Now this message is more like it. The version also changes to v4.5 and v4.5.1 when targeting .NET 4.5 and 4.5.1 respectively.
However, without .exe.config, the app launches normally, even when targeting .NET 4.0 (full) and higher (even 4.5). I imagine that if I was actually using any features of .NET 4.0 full or 4.5 and higher, the app would crash eventually, but I still think it's pretty interesting. Hypothetically, you would be able to check for the correct version of .NET inside the app itself.
I have not been able to test on Windows 8/8.1, but I imagine it's the same as Windows 7.
Either way, this is not a solved problem, at least not on Windows XP, which still has a large installed base.
Also, please stop telling me to use an installer. I know. That is not what this question is about.
Which is honestly pretty meaningless to a Joe User,
Joe user only should start programs that have been installed. It is the responsibility of the installer to handle prerequisites.
Is it somehow possible to crash with a more meaningful message?
No, becaused you do not crash. Not in .NET. When .NET was created, microsoft made the files backward compatible. It is the native initialization code in the executable that blows - not something in your .NET code. Without runtime, the .NET code can not run.
Funny enough, this is a solved problem. You are using a totally outdated version of .NET as this has been fixed in the latest versions (.NET 4.0 upward) with a more meaningful dialog.
has a reference. Depending on windows version that leads directly to a download/install dialog.
.NET 3.0 is quite ancient.