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.net.net-3.5windows-update

Can't target .net 3.5 after Windows update


All of my builds broke after one of the updates this week. Now I can't change the target frameworkI can't change the target framework

and I can only choose 4.0 system assembliesI can only choose 4.0 system assemblies

Is there any way I can get around this without uninstalling all the latest updates? If I add the right version of the System dlls via browse, it uses hint paths, which means I will have to check the System dlls into git.

This has happened both on my machine and on our build machine after running Windows update, so that's the only thing I can guess caused the problem.

This is Windows 7 and seems to only apply to VS 2008. VS 2012 lets me change the framework and shows the correct path to the v2.0 System dlls.


Solution

  • Look at the .NET Framework Targeting Pack page for issues like this.

    Basically, under Windows 8 you need to explicitly enable .NET 3.5 in "Windows Features". For earlier versions of Windows it just needs to be installed - the page has a link to the download.