.NET Framework 3.0 Compatibility for Iron Speed Designer

Microsoft released .NET Framework 3.0 on November 6, 2006. It is available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/netframework.

In short, Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 is a superset of .NET Framework 2.0 and all applications created for .NET Framework 2.0 should work without any changes under .NET Framework 3.0.

Additional Information

The following sections provide detailed information about the changes made in Microsoft .NET Framework and how Iron Speed Designer handles the version numbering of the different versions of .NET Framework.

The Deploying Microsoft .NET Framework Version 3.0 guide provides the following information about .NET 3.0:

How .NET Framework 3.0 Relates to .NET Framework 2.0 and Earlier

The .NET Framework 3.0 adds new technologies to the .NET Framework 2.0, which makes the .NET Framework 3.0 a superset of the .NET Framework 2.0. You can think of .NET Framework 3.0 as an "additive" release to the .NET Framework 2.0, as contrasted with a generational release where software is revised across the board. (For example, the .NET Framework 2.0 was a generational release over the .NET Framework 1.0.)

Because .NET Framework 3.0 is an additive release and uses the core run-time components from .NET Framework 2.0, it is completely backward compatible with the earlier version. Your existing .NET Framework 2.0 based-applications will continue to run without any modifications and you can safely continue your investments using the technologies that shipped with .NET Framework 2.0.

Installing the .NET Framework 3.0

Installing .NET Framework 3.0 (on XP and 2003) also adds any .NET Framework 2.0 components that are not already installed. If .NET Framework 2.0 is already installed, the .NET Framework 3.0 installer adds only the additional files for .NET 3.0.

Components shared with .NET Framework 2.0 are installed in the following location:

%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\V2.0.50727

Components that are new to .NET Framework 3.0 are installed in the following location:

%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\V3.0

ASP.NET code used by web applications will still be installed in V2.0.50727 even when installing .NET 3.0.

Version Numbers for .NET Framework Assemblies

The .NET Framework 3.0 shares many components with .NET Framework 2.0, and the common language run-time (CLR) and base class libraries are the same as those in .NET Framework 2.0. Therefore, these shared components stay at version 2.0. The version number 3.0 applies to all run-time and reference assemblies for Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), and Windows CardSpace.

Important: As described above, the version number for the ASP.NET component of .NET Framework will remain at 2.0, and will not change to 3.0. Even after installing .NET Framework 3.0, the Internet Information Services (IIS) manager will still only show the version numbers as 1.1.4322 and 2.0.50727 and will not display V3.0.