Most weeks in this blog we deal with a lot of practical business, web or technical issues from the more "30,000-feet perspective" ... or sometimes also range to whimsical or pop culture topics.

We intentionally do not make this a blog of ideas or concepts for software developers to use while writing code. First of all, there are so very many forums out there where programmers are giving each other great advice.

But today, I just wanna correct some of the first results on Google that technical and also some non-technical folks might see that are overly complicated when searching "What version of .NET Framework do I have?"

Why I Needed To Know .NET Version

Recently, I was having an issue with an installation of Adobe Creative Cloud on an old laptop I keep at a second office. While troubleshooting why the reinstall wasn't going smoothly, one potential issue for Adobe was that there was a requirement of the .NET Framework being at least version 4.5.

I couldn't remember off-hand which .NET version was installed on this machine and was wondering what the fastest way was to tell which versions were installed.


What’s a .NET Framework

Short version from Wikipedia: "A software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large class library and provides language interoperability (each language can use code written in other languages) across several programming languages."

Excellent How-To-Geek article explains .NET in a deeper dive.


Google Results Say To Look In The Registry?!

Most of the top Google results for where to see which versions of .NET you have installed. Take a look at the results you'll get in a Google search, or look at these top results below


You'll notice that they're sending you to the registry. Doesn't that seem like overkill, particularly for non-advanced users? Also, it might not be the best place to see what Windows thinks is installed.


Overkill - Just Look In Installed Programs

Instead, why don't we just look in the list of Programs and Features that Windows thinks is installed.

Go to Windows start button and/or search and type in "Programs and Features". You should get something like this:


Voila. Problem solved. And actually, a lot more telling than what is in the Registry (that's a topic for a long, boring article that I'm not going to write).

Good luck!