如果尝试下载我的独立应用程序时出现错误：无法找到运行该应用程序的运行时版本

Question

• I use VS 2010 C# Express
• The file is digitally signed (signed/verified with signtool)
• Target framework: .NET Framework 4 Client Profile
• .NET Framework 4 Client Profile is installed
• I'm uploading the exe to a simple static html page
• If I (or anyone) click on the download link get the message above
• Right-click -> Save Target As... works OK
• I can run the file without issues after downloading

Answer 1

I'd venture to guess that the problem is not within the executable itself but somewhere in the delivery of it into the web page or in the delivery of it back down to the end user; especially considering the program will run without issue once it's downloaded.

Have you completely vetted that process? You mention 'simple static html page' - elaborate on that a bit and you might get more suggestions that will lead you toward a proper solution. Web server used? Technology involved? Personal machine running apache or the like? or some website generator? or something like Wordpress? or some other web hosting company and their products? If the problem lies therein, then further details would be nice to have to help you deduce what is causing issue.

As I'm sure you're aware, that particular error message appears to be presented mostly to products that utilize products created with or included libraries requiring .NET 2.0, 3.0, or 3.5 - since they are (by default) no longer pre-installed on newer systems released with Windows 8+ ... a simple test to rule out the possibility would be to simply install the .NET 3.5 installer and see if the problem magically goes away - if it does, then you may need to do a bit of further research on the 'delivery mechanism' - read, web server used - technology it requires - etc ...

If that's way off ... perhaps this is an x86 vs x64 problem? 32bit app running on 64bit OS? something along those lines? A simple test would be to create 2 executables: one that is configured to build all output as x86 and one to build all output as x64 - see if both behave the same or if there is a difference, and move forward from there.

I believe that in this situation, you will need to play around and run a few tests before getting to the bottom of it. Good luck to you.

Answer 2

May I ask why you are targeting .NET 4.0 Client Platform specifically? Why not go ahead and target to one of the 4.5 versions? Is there a requirement to target a discontinued release of .NET ?

Within that link and this one under the 'Additional Information' section , there are statements that indicate an 'in place update' to .NET 4.0 is made to migrate an already installed .NET 4.0 Client Platform to the .NET 4.0 Full Install -- there doesn't appear to be anything written to indicate that 4.0 gets installed by the 4.5 installer, if it's not already installed on the system.

Therefore, all machines with .NET 4.5 installed would have replaced the mentioned 'target framework' of .NET that you're building with something that no longer exists on those machines ... which I believe might account for the popup error received. Can you, at least, try to target one of the 4.5 versions of .NET and update the executable to download on your server? Try again and see if the error goes away? If it does, then the problem that you are facing pertains to .NET Client Platform not (or longer due to 4.5 update) being installed on the client machines.

If that's the case and .NET 4.0 needs to be targeted, then you might need to target the Full 4.0 version instead of the Client Profile version. Or just move to one of the 4.5 versions.