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netfx4sdk

An attempt to provide .NET Framework 4.0 Developer Pack (SDK) support for modern Visual Studio / MSBuild / etc.

Two modes! Pure batch-scripts! Portable and Flexible (changes can be easily undone) ! Free and Open !

Copyright (c) 2021-2024  Denis Kuzmin <x-3F@outlook.com> github/3F

「 ❤ 」

Why netfx4sdk

netfx4sdk allows you to use easily a deprecated SDK for modern toolsets and IDEs such as VS2022+ / MSBuild 17+ / and other tools without installing any other outdated versions of Visual Studio.

Microsoft officially dropped support of the Developer Pack (SDK) for .NET Framework 4.0. Now it can only be a Runtime version: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/visual-studio-sdks

Means you can't simply build anything along with pure VS2022 (e.g. VM image, clean VS2022 env)

MSB3644: The reference assemblies for .NETFramework,Version=v4.0 were not found. To resolve this, install the Developer Pack (SDK/Targeting Pack) for this framework version or retarget your application. You can (*no, you can't) download .NET Framework Developer Packs at https://aka.ms/msbuild/developerpacks

But netfx4sdk will try to eliminate this artificial limitation by a single command,

Here's result using netfx4sdk 1.0 for the same clean VS2022 VM image above.

Usage

-mode sys - Hack using assemblies for windows. Highly recommended because

[++] All modules are under windows support.
[+] It does not require internet connection (portable).
[+] No decompression required (faster) compared to package mode.
[-] This is behavior-based hack;

-mode package will try to apply obsolete package to the environment.

[-] Officially dropped support since VS2022.
[-] Requires internet connection to receive ~30 MB via GetNuTool.
[-] Requires decompression of received data to 178 MB before use.
[+] Well known official behavior.

Arguments

 -mode {value}
  * system   - (Recommended) Hack using assemblies for windows.
  * package  - Apply obsolete remote package. Read [About modes] below.
  * sys      - Alias to `system`
  * pkg      - Alias to `package`

 -force    - Aggressive behavior when applying etc.
 -rollback - Rollback applied modifications.
 -global   - To use the global toolset, like hMSBuild.

 -pkg-version {arg} - Specific package version. Where {arg}:
     * 1.0.3 ...
     * latest - (keyword) To use latest version;

 -debug    - To show debug information.
 -version  - Display version of netfx4sdk.cmd.
 -help     - Display this help. Aliases: -help -h -?

Samples

netfx4sdk -mode sys
netfx4sdk -rollback
netfx4sdk -debug -force -mode package
netfx4sdk -mode pkg -pkg-version 1.0.2

Download

https://github.com/3F/netfx4sdk/releases/latest

Build and Use from source

git clone https://github.com/3F/netfx4sdk.git src
cd src & build & bin\Release\raw\netfx4sdk -help

.sha1 official distribution

netfx4sdk releases are now accompanied by a .sha1 file in the official distribution; At the same time, commits from which releases are published are signed with the committer's verified signature (GPG).

Make sure you are using official, unmodified, safe versions.

Note: .sha1 file is a text list of published files with checksums in the format:

40-hexadecimal-digits <space> file

eead8f5c1fdff2abd4da7d799fbbe694d392c792 path\file
...

Contributing

netfx4sdk is waiting for your awesome contributions!