Reader Frank Entwistle wrote from the U.K. to ask:
I run Windows XP SP3. Do I need .NET Frameworks 1.1? It is partly uninstalled following poor tech support advice from hp. I can give more detail if you wish.
Fortunately for Frank, Microsoft’s .NET Framework is one of those great creations by Microsoft that is seldomly needed. Some programs use it. Others don’t.
You only need Microsoft’s .NET Framework if you have a program that requires it.
Even better, most programs that require the .NET Frameworks will use the latest version that you have available on your computer — and v1.1 has long been superceded by later versions.
The .NET Framework is nothing more than a large group of pre-written program code that have a well-defined method to invoke those routines in order to specific tasks. It’s designed to make the programmer’s life easier (theoretically, by not making him write the routines to do every common thing).
It also has the "side benefit" (for Microsoft) of making the task of porting (that is, translating) the programs to other operating systems much more difficult — because now the programmer has to write those routines for the other operating system.
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