Removing .NET Framework 2.0, will it cause problems?

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Karandras

[H]ard|Gawd
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I have unintentionally installed .NET Framework 2.0 onto one of our client's servers and we need to remove it now. Can this cause problems with other programs that are running or any other programs or other versions of .NET Framework? We will probably use the Add/Remove programs uninstaller for it or the program that we unintentionally installed (Dell OpenManage IT Assistant) has an uninstaller to remove all the programs that were installed.

Thanks for your input.
 
Generally speaking, you should be fine removing it. Shit happens, though -- and something could always go wrong.
 
Demon10000 said:
Generally speaking, you should be fine removing it. Shit happens, though -- and something could always go wrong.
Click to expand...

So, basically, this tells him nothing?

Anywho, did you install 2.0 over 1.1? If uninstalling 2.0 reverts back to 1.1, you will be ok, but if uninstalling it completely gets rid of .NET Framework, you will have problems, some programs rely on Framework to work, even some installers need it.
 
Hey thanks for the info, general or more detailed ;-)

Going through the logs, don't see the MsiInstaller removing .NET Framework 1.x and our monitoring program doesn't show that SNMP listed it either so I'm going to assume that .NET Framework 1.x was not on these servers. That being said, lets say it was on there and programs stop working, if we install .NET Framework 1.x onto the server again those programs should start working, right?

Here is all the stuff that Dell OpenManage IT Assistant installed:

Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
Microsoft SQL Server Native Client
Microsoft SQL Server Setup Support Files (English)
Microsoft SQL Server VSS Writer
MSXML 6.0 Parser
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
Dell OpenManage Management Station

According to the all powerful internet and MS's site to remove all of the other stuff it would be done through Add/Remove programs as well except you want to remove the MSSQL Server Express Edition first then all the other supporting programs, does that sound about right?

Thanks again for the help.
 
That's not really our decision to make, we accidentally put it on there without the company's permission and they want it off. Probably wouldn't be any harm in it but that's not our call :(
 
So I was just asked to double check this and google doesn't help me much here. What is the worst thing that could happen if an uninstall of .NET Framework 2.0 gets botched?
 
You might want to chat with a .net developer to get a confirmation on this...

.Net programs register their assemblies in a Global Assembly Cache (the GAC). If you uninstall the framework, I don't know what happens to the GAC.

If they were not using it, uninstalling it shouldn't cause any harm. HOWEVER, if they were unknowingly using it (many programs install it automatically), and they have built up content in the GAC, I would guess an uninstall would remove it.

In order to get it working like it was before, you would need to reinstall the framework and then re-register each assembly with the GAC. The most likely method would be to reinstall the application that used the assembly.


With that said --
You do know that .net framework 2 does not replace .net 1.1. They are both stand-alone and can co-exist on a machine. Installing v2 does not remove 1.1 or limit/reduce the functionality. In fact, removing 2 will most like prevent the programs you installed from functioning.
 
I understand that you need to do what your client wants. Uninstalling it won't be a problem, as long as no apps and services that need it.

However, there are a lot of apps and services that need it. Unless your client is doesn't use many client based Windows applications, which for all I know they don't, they are probably already using .NET. It's just hard not to in the Windows world these days.
 
If an app needs it, you'll know after you uninstall it by looking for errors in Event Viewer.
 
Sweet, thanks for all the info everyone.. I talked to my buddy who is a .NET developer (not sure why I didn't think of this in the beginning) and this is what he said:

- You'll probably have to run aspnet_regiis for version 1.1 to update websites that would have been modified by the 2.0 installer
- Make sure there aren't any websites or virtual directories in IIS that rely on it
- The worst case would probably be that other applications that rely on it stop working and you need to reinstall.
 
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