This is one of those, ‘Why couldn’t they get it right’ issues where the Service Pack for .NET Framework fails to install and us ISVs are left picking up the pieces. Microsoft have released a KB article 951950 ( http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-gb;951950 ) and a tool, the snappily named ’Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Registration Correction Tool’ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0BA6038C-061E-4B4A-9BE9-96A323701260
This has been a bug bear of mine for ages now, why there is no version control in .NET Framework. Lets not forget this was a technology designed to alleviate DLL version hell. But you try and find out what versions, sp’s and hotfixes are installed and you will be left wondering.
Somehow MS need to get a grip of this situation and have some sort of common and comprehensive way of querying whats installed on a target machine, its ISV hell. This is further compounded by the fact that the framework doesn’t gracefully handle version deficiencies. If a call you make from your app is missing in the version of the Framework the user has installed it doesn’t ask nicely if you would like the latest version downloaded and installed it just throws an exception that your app has to handle. Very unfriendly and inconvenient for the ISV and user.
The whole .NET Framework deployment scenario needs looking at again from a deployment perspective and prevent us ISV’s having to code around the deficiencies it was supposed to cure.
