Visual Studio 2008 - .NET 2.0 targeted application won't run in XP (mscorwks.dll could not be loaded)

Question

I have a .NET 2.0 targeted C# windows forms application that is running fine on XP when .NET 3.5 is installed. However, when .NET 2.0 only is installed I get the error:

"WindowsFormsApplication1.exe - .NET Framework Initialization Error" - "C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\mscorwks.dll could not be loaded"

I have tried this with a basic default windows forms application and encounter this error on XP SP1, SP2 and SP3 with .NET 2.0 installed.

Could there be some other step that I am missing?

Answer 1

Yeah, you possibly use .NET 3.5 features. Ergo the 2.0 requirement is "fake" as in you ned 3.5 installed.

Answer 2

When you publish your application, verify if Framework 2.0 is checked in the "required components", and 3.5 unchecked.

Answer 3

I solved this by using .NET 2.0 SP1 rather than .NET 2.0.