Many years ago I had a problem running a program that requires Microsoft .NET Framework installed. I updated to the the latest .NET Framework on my Windows computer but still couldn’t get it to run. Then I thought perhaps the .NET Framework that is on my computer got corrupted and needs to be reinstalled again. I downloaded the Redistributable Package and the installation failed. When this happens, normally I’d uninstall the program and then try to reinstall again.

So I tried to be smart, uninstalled Microsoft .NET Framework from Add or Remove Programs and it was successful. I encountered another problem which is I can’t get .NET Framework to install no matter what I did. Now I don’t even have any version of .NET Framework installed on my computer which is even worst than before. Last time I could at least run other .NET Framework applications except one of it but now none at all!

I remembered finding Aaron Stebner’s WebLog on how to manually cleanup the .NET Framework but I still couldn’t get it fixed. In the end I ended up reformatting my hard drive and reinstall Windows just because I couldn’t get .NET Framework installed again (I had some .NET Framework apps that I urgently need to use). Lucky you all now, if you had the same problem, Aaron Stebner has created a cleanup tool which automates removing Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5.

Aaron Stebner’s .NET Framework Setup Cleanup Utility contains support for automatically cleaning up the .NET Framework 1.0, the .NET Framework 1.1, the .NET Framework 2.0, the .NET Framework 3.0 and the .NET Framework 3.5.

Uninstall .NET Framework

This tool automates the manual cleanup steps for the .NET Framework 2.0 that Aaron Stebner posted a while ago (I went through the manual steps before and it was not easy). These steps have helped solve most of the known .NET Framework 2.0 beta uninstall issues that Aaron know of. In addition, the tool can be useful to return your system to a known (relatively clean) state in case you run into any .NET Framework 2.0 installation failures so that you can try to install again.

The updated version of the cleanup tool contains options to clean up the .NET Framework 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5 separately and all versions simultaneously in a single step. The cleanup tool contains logic so that if it is run on an OS version that includes the .NET Framework as an OS component, it will not offer the option to clean it up. This means that running the cleanup tool on Windows XP Media Center Edition or Tablet PC Edition will not offer the option to clean up the .NET Framework 1.0, running it on Windows Server 2003 will not offer the option to clean up the .NET Framework 1.1 and running it on Windows Vista will not offer the option to clean up the .NET Framework 2.0 or the .NET Framework 3.0.

The .NET Framework cleanup tool is very easy to use. Just download, extract and run cleanup_tool.exe. Select the version of .NET Framework that you want to cleanup and click the “Cleanup Now” button. The cleanup process takes a while, so be patient and don’t close the cleanup tool or restart your computer.

This tool is designed as a last resort for cases where install, uninstall or repair did not succeed for unusual reasons. It is not intended as a substitute for the standard uninstall procedure. You should try to perform an uninstall from Add/Remove Programs before using this cleanup tool. The last time I uninstalled .NET Framework was disastrous, so ONLY uninstall .NET Framework when you have no other choice.

[ Download .NET Framework Setup Cleanup Utility ]

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