Do my users need .net?

My application is not a .Net, its pure C++/mfc. It checks for updates by launching wyUpdate.exe. Is it possible to run wyUpdate.exe without .net framework installed? otherwise, please, make it clear in product description that end-users of non-dotNet applications will have to download the framework.

It is said pretty clearly that users do need .NET.http://wyday.com/wybuild/requirements.php

Yes, wyUpdate.exe is a .NET application, so requires .NET. I believe you can target .NET 2.0 or 4.0.

We have the same situation as you - pure C++/MFC/WIN32/etc. So far, we've had only a small minority of customers who needed to download .NET (we target 2.0). It's a fairly small download.

We solved this by having our "check for updates" check the return value from trying to launch wyUpdate.exe. If it was none of the standard return values, then we assumed that their system doesn't have .NET, and we offer to open a browser on the .NET 2.0 download page, and inform them that they can try again once they've installed .NET, or they can ignore this feature if they don't care for it.

As sztomi has already said, we cover this pretty well on the "Requirements for wyBuild, wyUpdate, and the AutomaticUpdater" page.

A very high percentage of Windows users have .NET 2.0 or above installed. I believe it was 96.3% a couple of years ago. In short, all Windows Vista and Windows 7 users have .NET 2.0 installed and almost all Windows XP/2000 users have .NET 2.0 installed.

Also, you can detect and install .NET 2.0 when you install your app. We can give you tips on how to do this. What installer are you using?

Reply
Discard post