Microsoft .NET Framework Repair Tool updated to support new versions

Microsoft published an updated version of the company's .NET Framework Repair Tool this week; the new version supports newer versions of the Microsoft .NET Framework, in particular versions 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2 and 4.8, which older versions did not support.

Administrators may download the latest version of the application from the Microsoft website. The list of supported .Net Framework versions is available on the same page and links are provided to download these to the local system (which is useful when the program is run in offline mode).

The program requires elevated rights and cannot be run otherwise. The interface of the application is available in English only but the program may also be run from the command line or as part of scripts.

The .NET Framework Repair Tool attempts to troubleshoot setup issues first and will try to apply fixes; this requires user consent. Afterwards, it will attempt to repair all installed versions of the .NET Framework that it supports, generate logs (requires user consent), and submits these logs to Microsoft.

Microsoft notes:

The tool may make one or more changes to the installed version of .NET Framework. For example, it may correct the state of Windows Installer on the computer, reset the discretionary access control lists (DACLs) on certain folders, or resolve issues that are related to an invalid or corrupted update registration.

The software attempts to download the required .NET Framework versions from the Internet by default but administrators may run the tool in offline mode. This mode requires that a source for the .NET Framework installation files are provided as no Internet connection is established to download these files automatically.

The main command to run the tool in offline mode is NetfxRepairTool.exe /addsource \\SHARE_PC\SHARE_FOLDER.

The program supports several other commands including /r for repair, /l for logs, /c to run the tool in collect mode only, /n to opt-out of sending data to Microsoft, and /q and /p to run the tool in quiet or unattended mode.

Windows administrators who want to make sure that no information is transferred to Microsoft should run the program with the /n parameter to ensure that this is the case.

The Microsoft .NET Framework Repair Tool is a handy troubleshooting tool to fix .NET Framework related issues on Windows machines. While it won't fix all issues that Windows users may run into when running .NET applications on their devices, it may be useful as a first or second resort when running into errors to make sure that the installations are not corrupt.