Offline install of .NET Framework 3.5 in Windows 10

gintautas Windows

The .NET Framework is an integral part of many applications running on Windows and provides common functionality for those applications to run. Normally, before running/installing such applications, we need to enable .NET Framework from the Control Panel on the computer.  So, you may first check if the .NET Framework 3.5 is available in the Control Panel on Windows 10 Technical Preview and if available, you may enable it from the Control Panel to install it on the computer. To check if the.NET Framework 3.5 is available in Control Panel and to enable it, please follow these steps:
 
a) Press “Windows Logo” + “R” keys on the keyboard.
b) Type “appwiz.cpl” in the “Run” command box and press “ENTER”.
c) In the “Programs and Features” window, click on the link “Turn Windows features on or off”.
d) Check if the “.NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0)” option is available in it.
e) If yes, then enable it and then click on “OK”.
f) Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation and restart the computer, if prompted.
 
This will install the .NET Framework 3.5 feature on the computer. There is also another way by which .NET Framework 3.5 gets installed on the computer. This is done by the apps on demand.
 
If an app requires the .NET Framework 3.5, but doesn’t find that version enabled on your computer, it displays the prompt for installing the .NET Framework 3.5 on demand, either during installation, or when you run the app for the first time after its installation. In this prompt, you can choose the option “Install this feature” to enable the .NET Framework 3.5 on the computer.

Offline install of .NET Framework 3.5 in Windows 10 using DISM

To install .NET Framework 3.5 in Windows 10, do the following:

  1. Insert your Windows 10 DVD, or double click its ISO image, or insert your bootable flash drive with Windows 10, depending on what you have.
  2. Open ‘This PC’ in File Explorer and note the drive letter of the installation media you have inserted. In my case it is disk D:
  3. Now open an elevated command prompt and type the following command: 
    Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /Source:D:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess

    Replace D: with your drive letter for Windows 10 installation media.

You are done! This will install .NET framework 3.5 in Windows 10.
To save your time, I have prepared a simple batch file which will save your time and will find the inserted installation media automatically. It looks like this:

@echo off
Title .NET Framework 3.5 Offline Installer
for %%I in (D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) do if exist "%%I:\\sources\install.wim" set setupdrv=%%I
if defined setupdrv (
echo Found drive %setupdrv%
echo Installing .NET Framework 3.5...
Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /Source:%setupdrv%:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess
echo.
echo .NET Framework 3.5 should be installed
echo.
) else (
echo No installation media found!
echo Insert DVD or USB flash drive and run this file once again.
echo.
)
pause