The .NET Download for you is:
YOUR PERSONALIZED RESULTS
I can't tell if you've got .NET installed. Perhaps you don't have .NET installed or perhaps
your browser isn't letting me know. Consider visiting this site using Internet Explorer, which will tell me more about if your system has .NET on it or not. Alternatively, if you're running Windows, you can go download the 2.8 meg installer for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. The .NET installer is smart enough to look at your system and automatically download the smallest upgrade package possible.
For you, it'll probably be 60 megabytes total.
Also, you might make sure your system is setup to get updates from WindowsUpdate automatically.
This will make sure your system is up to date with the lastest stuff, including the latest .NET Framework.
What just happened?
This site looked at your browser's "UserAgent" and figured out what version (if any) of the .NET Framework you have (or don't have) installed, then calculated the total size if you chose to download the .NET Framework.
Are you a .NET Programmer?
If you're a programmer/developer, you might be trying to figure out which .NET Framework for your users to use.
Sometimes finding the right .NET Framework is confusing because different kinds of machines (x86, x64, ia64) that may or may not have different versions of .NET already on them.
If you look for .NET Downloads on Microsoft's site, it might look like the .NET Framework is 200+ megs. It's not. Those big downloads are the Complete Offline Versions of every version of the .NET
Framework for every kind of machine possible. The big .NET download includes x86, x64, and ia64. It includes .NET 2.0, 3.0, and 3.5 code for all systems all in one super-archive.
Why would you EVER want to download the whole archive? Only if you're a developer and you want to distribute the .NET Framework the widest possible audience in a format like a CD or DVD.
Online Download
If your users have internet connectivity, the .NET Framework is only between 10 and 60 megs. Why such a wide range? Well, it depends on if they already have some version of .NET.
If you point your users to the online setup for the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, that 2.8 meg download will automatically detect and download the smallest archive possible to get the job done.
SuperSmall Online Download for XP SP2 Users (PREVIEW!)
Soon, Microsoft will release a super-small download for XP SP2 machines that have no version of the .NET Framework.
It's a 280k setup program that will download the "Client Profile" of the .NET Framework that's only about 26megs and will run most Client .NET applications.
Then, in the next few months, those "Client Profile" will receive the rest of the complete .NET Framework (another 30 or so megs) over Windows Update. More details on the Client Profile will be coming in September!
Offline Download to Install Later
If you are a developer and are distributing your code on CD or DVD, you might want to download the
FULL OFFLINE .NET 3.5 installation on your media. The download is about 200 megs, but again,
that contains all the different 50-60 meg installs that any one system might need.
For technical or debugging purposes, this is exactly what your browser said about itself:
CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html)
Thanks! If this was helpful to you, please visit my blog.
What's This?
SmallestDotNet.com is a single page site that does one thing. It tells you the smallest, easiest download you'd need to get the .NET Framework on your system. The size of the .NET download is usually WAY smaller than you think it'll be.
There's no database, no cookies, and nothing about your computer has been stored or kept. We just look at the information your browser already reports about your computer and make a suggestion as to the best .NET Framework download for you.
Support
There's no support for this website. It's just a single page meant to save you some time and confusion. I hope it helps you. If not, I'm sorry. When all else fails, you usually can't go wrong by a visit to WindowsUpdate.com.
However, if the site breaks or tells you something that's not right, do let me know.