MSI fails to install because of missing .NET 3.5 although .NET 4.5 is installed

Question

I have a problem with msi installer made with WiX. It works on Win 7, but when I run it on Windows Server 2012 R2 it fails. It tries to install .NET framework 3.5 which you can't do that easily on Windows Server. The thing I don't understand is that .NET 4.5 framework is already installed on this machine.

Why does my wix installer look for .NET 3.5?

Is there a way how to disable it?

Thank you.

Update: So I found the problem. One of components used in the installation was taken from an older source and this file wasn't compatible with .Net 4.0 and higher. Thank you all who tried to help.

If the wix installer requires .net 3.5, it includes some code to detect .net 3.5. You can simply remove that. If the application was build for .net 3.5, you might need to retarget it. — wimh
It is also possible that a merge module that you include, checks for .net 3.5. Maybe you can show the exact error message in the question? You can also use orca.exe to examine the launch conditions in the msi. If you find it, you can also remove it with orca. But that needs to be done every time after rebuilding the msi. You need to download the windows sdk to get orca. — wimh
Note that your errormessage says .net 3.5 cannot be installed. The screenshot looks like the windows wizard which tried to install .net 3.5, it does not look like a wix error. Maybe it is started using ServerManagerCmd.exe or powershell (Add-WindowsFeature). Anyway, for the same reason it is difficult to manually install .net 3.5, it is also difficult to do that automatically. — wimh

Tobias Knauss Tobias Knauss · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-29T11:03:58

Do you need both .net 3.5 and 4.0 installed or just .net 4?

Not exactly what you're looking for, but it says that sometimes .net 3.5 is not fully replaced by .net 4.0 and higher. So you also need .net 3.5

MSI fails to install because of missing .NET 3.5 although .NET 4.5 is installed

1 Answers