Coinciding with the release of Windows Vista RC1 this week, Microsoft has released (finally!) the Release Candidate for .NET Framework 3.0 also. One of the problems with .NET Framework 3.0 (a.k.a WinFX) has been the confusion associated with the plethora of different download bits and CTP versions. Here is the official page to download all pieces of .NET framework 3.0 needed to start developing WCF, WPF or WWF.

I have tried to simplify it below:

  1. At the bare minimum, you need .NET Framework 3.0 Runtime components from here if you are in Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003. For Windows Vista RC1 these bits are automatically installed. [filename: dotnetfx3setup.msi]
  2. Visual Studio “Orcas” bits – this you need if you want to use Visual Studio 2005 to develop WPF (Avalon) or WCF (Indigo) applications. [filename: vsextwfx.msi]
  3. Visual Studio WWF Extensions – this you need if you want to use Visual Studio 2005 to develop WWF (Workflow) applications. [filename: Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation RC5(EN).exe]
  4. Windows SDK – Don’t get fooled by the small download for this, the full SDK is about 1GB in size. You get the entire SDK for .NET 3.0 plus previously released Windows SDK (Native code) components as well. The best way to download this will be to download the DVD image here. [filename: 6.0.5536.0.2.WindowsSDK_Vista_RC1.DVD.Rel.img]

Hope this helps a little bit!

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