Deploying .Net 3.5 in a cd to clients

Question

Hi We need to ship and deploy .Net 3.5 in a cd to clients who do not have it installed. The CD will contain a custom app developed in wpf. The scenario is that the clients do not necessarily have internet connection so downloading .net 3.5 F/W online is not possible. From what i understand we will need to have the users download .Net 3.5 but given the above scenario we will need to install it manually from CD. Just wondering if we can download .net 3.5 manually. If anyone has already done this any input/direction will be appreciated. Thanks N

Answer 1

Yes it's possible. See the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=333325FD-AE52-4E35-B531-508D977D32A6&displaylang=en#Instructions

Look for the following text:

Full Redistributable Package

To download the full redistributable package, rather than the bootstrapper, click on the link below to start the download: .NET Framework 3.5 full package

Remember though, there are other prerequisites for installing .NET 3.5, like Windows Installer 3.1. So it might be wise to also include those other packages.

Answer 2

If you use the full redistributable package, be aware that it contains only language neutral and English parts. Should the OS be a localized version, the setup program will try and download language pack as well. You can prevent this by executing the setup with a parameter that forces English only. Language packs can be installed after the framework, so you might want to copy some of those to the install CD as well.

SP1 lang packs are available from Microsoft.