Microsoft .NET Framework

Developed by Microsoft, the Microsoft .NET Framework contains a number of different files used to read and run various programs written in different coding languages. The purpose of this was to make a language-neutral platform where a variety of different apps could be developed and then successfully executed within the framework, allowing developers the freedom to build programs in whatever language they found best suited for the task.

As for usage, this program is not suited for beginners, however advanced developers will also find limitations because this program does not come with many core development tools. Instead, those must be downloaded separately. That being said, download and instillation of this program is extremely simple and easy enough for anyone to do regardless of their application development knowledge. In addition, Windows’ automatic update feature will make sure the program is always up to date, an extremely important stipulation to the success of this application. This ensures that all programs will run correctly and not crash.

In a nutshell, Microsoft .NET Framework is dedicated almost entirely to programming interfaces and supporting libraries, and it’s this enormous library support that has made it so successful. It allows for a great number of things, including maintaining network connections and sending output to the screen. However, in order to obtain such versatility, this library has to be installed in full on every single computer that is asked to run a .NET program.

Apart from how great this program is, there is the issue of backwards compatibility in that not all programs can run with the newer .NEW frameworks. Because of this, it is advised that older versions are kept on the computer and not deleted as newer versions are released and then downloaded.

Pros

• Runs .NET programs
• Automatically updates when available

Cons

• Must keep older versions for some programs to keep running
• Download is a long process