How to find out which version of the .NET Framework an executable needs to run?

.net version executable
Sam picture Sam · Nov 28, 2008 · Viewed 84.9k times · Source

I've got an executable file, and I would like to know which versions of the .NET framework this file needs to be started.

Is there an easy way to find this information somewhere?

(So far I tried ILDASM and DUMPBIN without any luck.)

Answer

Asain Kujovic picture Asain Kujovic · Oct 24, 2016

Using Notepad, three decades old, 200kb in size, preinstalled tool:

  • open application with notepad appname.exe,
  • search for word "framework",
  • repeat last search with F3 until .NET Framework,version=vX.Y shows up
  • if nothing found (versions below 3.0) search for v2. ... still 100 times easier then installing gigabytes of dot net analyzer tools and garbage studios.

Any other editor/viewer can open binaries too, like Notepad++ or totalCommander's great text/hex viewer lister.

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