Do I need to install both the 64-bit *and* x86 version of .Net SP2?

Question

So I downloaded the .net 2.0 sp2 redistributable "NetFx20SP2_x64.exe" from the following site:

http://www.microsoft.com/DOWNLOADS/details.aspx?familyid=5B2C0358-915B-4EB5-9B1D-10E506DA9D0F&displaylang=en

Deployed on my x64 win2k3 server from which I run IIS in x86 mode. On the same server I also run services and utilities in x64 bit mode.

So the question is easy, do I also need to install the "NetFx20SP2_x86.exe" version from the aforementioned link, or does the x64-bit include it already?

Answer 1

If you try to install NetFx20SP2_x86.exe on a x64 system you will get the following error message:

Cannot install on a 32-bit operating system

If you have already installed the .NET x64 runtime, you actually get both x64 and x86 versions. The one that will be used depends on which platform the assembly is compiled against (the /platform compiler switch). For AnyCPU, it will use x64 otherwise, it will use whatever was specified.