What major applications does Microsoft sell which use the .NET framework?

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+22 Q:

What major applications does Microsoft sell which use the .NET framework?

As a programmer, I feel much safer knowing that the frameworks being 'sold' to me are actually in use by their creators to produce real applications, as this gives me some reassurance that they will actually solve some set of problems, and are not just architecture astronautics.

I remember years ago in the days of .NET 1.0 and 1.1, there was a lot of hype about how the next version of windows (which would have been Vista) was going to make heavy use of .NET, and there lots of hype about how great that would be.

I remember at the time thinking "well if Microsoft are basing their products off it, it must be pretty good." However, that didn't actually happen, and Vista ended up containing almost zero .NET parts. I also haven't heard of them using it in any apps that they sell at all (except IIS)

Although I've had many great experiences with .NET myself, the fact that Microsoft don't appear to use it themselves hardly fills me with confidence. In contrast, all of the frameworks Apple ships in OSX such as CoreData are all in heavy use by their major apps...

Off the top of my head I know of these 'purchaseable' MS apps which use .NET:

IIS7
Visual Studio (which I don't think really counts...)

Are there any others?

Disclaimer: I believe this is programming related, as it deeply affects the confidence that I as a programmer have in a technology, and counts a lot when evaluating what to use when building my next apps.
I would feel equally compelled to ask the same question again about a subset of .NET, such as WPF or WCF, or any other native win32 library, before deciding to write any apps using it...

+2 A:

Microsoft Zune

Darren Kopp 2008-10-23 00:28:10

Do you mean the software on the player itself? or their version of iTunes? I'm not familiar with either

Orion Edwards 2008-10-23 00:30:30

I'm not sure but I think Zune (the PC application) uses a custom framework which is based off some .net stuff but isn't exactly WPF.The Zune player does run XNA games though.

Nidonocu 2008-10-23 01:16:05

+4 A:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM was one of the (if not the) first application Microsoft built on .Net.

SaaS Developer 2008-10-23 00:29:37

I can't find any proof, but I was under the impression Microsoft actually bought the CRM product from another company (well, bought the company that created it)?

Orion Edwards 2008-10-23 00:32:38

Microsoft did buy a company that built a CRM app. Their dev group was on the original CRM product team. However, they did build Microsoft CRM from the ground up.

SaaS Developer 2008-10-23 00:45:15

Dynamics was originally Axapta, Microsoft bought and rebranded it. It still supports the proprietary X++ language that Axapta invented.

FlySwat 2008-10-23 01:29:46

Jonathan, that is simply not true. Dynamics Axapta and Dynamics CRM are two entirely different products offered by Microsoft! My post was regarding CRM. You can read for yourself about CRM being on .Net: http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/26875/microsoft-crm-for-the-net-environment.html

SaaS Developer 2008-10-23 02:20:55

Axapta/Navision are being developed in Denmark and are still not completely .NET based (they do promise the next Navision will be built on .NET/maybe X++ will be gone, don't know). Navision is more ERP than CRM. Though the products have "Dynamics" in the name, CRM and Axapta/Navision are different.

liggett78 2008-12-17 16:06:53

Dynamics is a product suite name - just like Office and includes a number of products. The main ones are:AX (previously Axapta)NV (previously Navison)GP (previously Great Plains)SL (previously Solomon)CRMRMSThe first four are all ERP applications which MS aquired via buying companies out.

Robert MacLean 2009-05-26 08:12:48

+11 A:

SQL Server 2005/2008 can both host the CLR and interoperate with its types. You can even use its types and methods as functions, aggregates, procedures, etc. I'd say that's about as strong a backing as you can get from Microsoft as SQL Server is one of its flagship products.

Greg Beech 2008-10-23 00:33:01

The new Geo Spatial features in SQL 2008 are written in .NET.

Chris Pietschmann 2008-10-23 02:42:51

I think sql management studio is also written in .NET, looks like it

PeteT 2008-10-27 16:28:00

SQL Management studio is built on top of Visual Studio which is C++ and not .NET

Robert MacLean 2009-05-26 08:09:49

Sql Management Studio makes heavy use of Server Management Objects, which is .NET.

Dan Finch 2009-10-06 20:54:59

None.
I believe our esteemed host explained it Fire and Motion - if you can't compete, you get your competitors to waste their time rewriting all their stuff in some new technology. If that new system also locks them into your market all the better.

When MS rewrites Office and SQL server in .Net - I will consider it.

Martin Beckett 2008-10-23 00:40:14

agree 100%, I will switch to .net when explorer, excel or word are written in .net, not one second before. almost everybody uses c++ for windows client applications...

Tony BenBrahim 2008-10-23 00:44:51

heck. I'd even settle for them writing outlook express in it.

Orion Edwards 2008-10-23 00:54:23

I didn't think Outlook Express was written, it just appeared one day, and has been terrorizing Support departments ever since!

Mark Glorie 2008-10-23 01:26:00

"almost everybody uses c++ for windows client applications" Really? Do you have any data to back that up with?

Ed Swangren 2008-10-23 01:30:45

Um - SQL Server 2005/2008 do support the CLR being embedded in them and can interoperate natively with .NET

Greg Beech 2008-10-23 01:37:14

you sir, are a troll

John Sheehan 2008-10-23 01:38:14

Why would they abandon 1000's of man years of work just to redevelop the apps in .NET? That would make no business sense. Many new apps MS develop are built on .NET such as the Expression applications.

Craig 2008-10-23 01:52:57

>you sir, are a troll No, I'm a cynic - asking the original question was a troll!

Martin Beckett 2008-10-23 13:47:15

-1: None? I guess you mean none except the list of applications listed above.

Robert MacLean 2009-05-26 08:23:15

Those are all .Net interfaces/add-ons to existing c++/Win32 products. I stand by my comments that MS want's people to rewrite major applications in .Net but doesn't do so itself.

Martin Beckett 2009-05-26 15:01:42

+12 A:

SharePoint is build on ASP.NET

Lou Franco 2008-10-23 00:41:52

Good point. As terrible as sharepoint is, it seems to sell

Orion Edwards 2008-10-23 00:55:11

What a way to dissuade people from using .NET!

Rich 2008-10-23 05:22:52

This was unintentionally hilarious (intentional?)

Gurdas Nijor 2009-12-04 00:18:01

+12 A:

I believe Windows Media Center is a .NET app. (it comes with XP Media Center Edition, and Vista Home Premium / Ultimate editions)

Hugh Allen 2008-10-23 00:49:18

If so, that would be really cool as it would be the first non-server app in this list.

Orion Edwards 2008-10-23 00:55:48

Yes that is indeed the case - it is built in managed code. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Center#Application_development

Greg Beech 2008-10-23 01:00:11

how can this be the "Accepted" answer? makes no sense to me. the encouragement to accept answers only leads to twisted decisions like this one.

Eli Bendersky 2009-01-31 14:32:04

+10 A:

Expression Blend, while at a MS Launch event the presenter mentioned this app specifically as an example of "eating their own dogfood".

The main reason behind this seems to be the Windows Presentation Framework, released with .NET 3.0

Tom Willwerth 2008-10-23 01:00:56

Does "eating ones own dogfood" imply a bad thing?

Paperino 2009-03-26 21:25:59

Paperino - no, in most cases it is positive. Check out the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_one's_own_dog_food

Tom Willwerth 2009-04-01 15:14:30

+3 A:

XNA is built using .net, games like this are the sort of thing others have built using it. (That particular one, the Dishwasher, was created by one guy doing code, art and music).

Likewise I believe Windows Live Writer, the very popular blogging editor is in fact a Windows Forms application, despite appearances.

Nidonocu 2008-10-23 01:23:52

Don't forget that the XBox 360 can run XNA based games, so the framework is on the device. I wonder if any part of the XBox 360 dashboard is in .NET/XNA, or if the new major update that's coming will be?

Chris Pietschmann 2008-10-23 02:45:02

I believe the XBox 360 uses the compact framework.

Curt Hagenlocher 2008-10-23 03:00:10

+5 A:

Silverlight
Live Mesh
Windows Mobile Device Center
Windows Media Center Store Update Manager

Mark Cidade 2008-10-23 01:30:19

+4 A:

Can't remeber which blog is saw it on but Visual Studio 10 is suppose to be using WPF for its interface. Not sure if the CTP that will come out at PDC will have it though, but maybe the CTP after that. And Visual Studio is one of the biggest cash cows. Also some of the testing tools for VSTS will be fully done in WPF.

The point being that WPF is .net.

vdhant 2008-10-23 01:34:21

hey hey... looks like i was right ;)

vdhant 2008-10-30 23:24:51

+4 A:

Live Writer

John Sheehan 2008-10-23 01:45:26

+8 A:

I thought this was kinda fun. The new versions of paint and calculator for Windows 7 are being written using WPF.

EDIT: Links

News Report of WPF based Wordpad, Paint and Calculator

smaclell 2008-10-23 01:45:50

You can't open the games included with Vista in Reflector. So, I guess they aren't in .NET. I too thought they were WPF...

Chris Pietschmann 2008-10-23 02:40:44

Good catch. I removed the comment.

smaclell 2008-10-23 03:25:21

I'm using Windows 7 RC1 and none of the mentioned programs are managed .NET-application as Process Explorer points out.

VVS 2009-05-25 18:22:00

+1 A:

Microsoft Office Accounting requires the 2.0 Framework, but I don't know if it's entirely built on it.

John Sheehan 2008-10-23 01:53:17

+4 A:

Microsoft.com is built on ASP.NET. It is not, strictly speaking, a product they SELL, but it's very high traffic and fairly critical to Microsoft's business.

Wedge 2008-10-23 03:37:45

Microsoft.com is actually built on top of SharePoint 2007 - which is technically ASP.NET, but with much more that it should be identified seperately.

Robert MacLean 2009-05-26 08:13:29

+3 A:

Since the original release of Visual Studio .NET, certain parts of Visual Studio have been written in managed code. For example, the property grid & MSBuild are both managed code.

Searching around my $env:ProgramFiles, I see that Windows Home Server is at least partially managed code.

Office does include some managed code, too: InfoPath.

As others have said, it makes little sense to take existing applications that work well, and re-write them just for the sake of saying they're written in .NET.

Jay Bazuzi 2008-10-23 04:24:55

Visual Studio Tools for Office allows you to run .NET code inside MS Office applications. This is a pretty significant use of .NET given the importance of Office to Microsoft.

Ade Miller 2008-10-23 04:55:22

-1: It's not a .NET app (as the question asked) and VSTO is just a wrapper for COM+ anyway (so not pure .NET)

Robert MacLean 2009-05-26 08:15:33

+2 A:

Oooh I remember a really cool application that was built using .NET components. This might never been turned into a commercial product (although rumors have it that it is) but I thought it was neat. It is the Singularity research project where researchers at microsoft created a completely .NET OS with some very interesting design choices. Better yet you can download portions of it here.

Sorry I know this is kinda straying away from the intent of the question but I thought it was a really interesting stretch for the normal .NET.

smaclell 2008-10-23 05:20:40

midori project I believe. Think this is a long term view of having an os and programs that you take with you on pen drive or log in on the net to get all your settings, files and so on. Sounds great. Would end the windows registry and similar monstrosities.

PeteT 2008-10-27 16:31:05

+3 A:

SQL Server Management Studio (and the Express version) is .NET based.

Charles Roper 2008-11-07 07:37:46

-1: No it's not - it's built on Visual studio which is C++ based currently.

Robert MacLean 2009-05-26 08:14:03

+1 because it certainly uses a lot of .NET, even if it may not be a managed app in the strictest sense.

Dan Finch 2009-10-06 20:57:29

Exchange 2007 uses .NET for most of it's components. There are some bits still in unmanaged code, but large parts of it is C#.

Newer products in the System Center family are also using .NET more and more.

So I believe Microsoft is showing that you can actually make some good stuff with this technology.

Also lets not forget Azure which relies on you developing in .NET at the moment. (But how much of the Azure internal bits are .NET I do not know.)

2008-11-12 16:03:20

SCOM (System Center Operation Manager)

Ken Yao 2008-12-17 15:46:07

+1 A:

Microsoft Outlook Web Access within Exchange 2007 uses ASP.NET I believe

Luke 2009-01-07 08:25:41

+1 A:

Visual Studio

question: Out of curiosity, approximately what will be the proportion of managed (WPF) to unmanaged code that VS2010 we be built upon?

Rico Mariani: Half managed code and VS have around 45 millions code lines

http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/Going+Deep/Rico-Mariani-Visual-Studio-Today-Tomorrow-and-Beyond/

MicTech 2009-07-06 16:04:27

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What major applications does Microsoft sell which use the .NET framework?

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