Softpedia >News >Microsoft >Tools & Applications
Softpedia Homepage   

Download .NET Framework 4.5 Developer Preview

Available in parallel with Windows 8 Build 8102 and Visual Studio 11 Preview

Sep 19, 2011 19:01 GMT  ·  By
.NET Framework
   .NET Framework

.NET Framework 4.5 Developer Preview was announced last week concomitantly with Windows 8 Developer Preview and Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview.

Early adopters can download and start testing not only Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3), but also the first of VS 11 and .NET 4.5.

The Developer Preview of .NET Framework 4.5 is available through the Microsoft Download Center.

Testers can opt to grab either the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 Developer Preview – Full or the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 Developer Preview - Web Installer.

“The Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 Developer Preview is a prerelease version of the .NET Framework, and should not be used in production scenarios,” the software giant revealed.

“This software is an in-place update to the .NET Framework 4, and is designed to run side-by-side with the .NET Framework 3.5 and earlier versions.”

Devs can leverage this resource in order to start building applications targeting .NET Framework 4.5, including on Windows 8.

However, the .NET Framework 4.5 Developer Preview is not limited to only the next major iteration of the Windows client, as Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are also supported.

“The .NET Framework 4.5 Developer Preview includes updates to the common language runtime (CLR) and the .NET Framework class library, innovations in the Visual Basic and C# languages, enhancements in data access and web server scenarios, and improvements in extensibility, performance, reliability, and security,” the Redmond company added.

According to Microsoft, the changes included into the NET 4.5 Developer Preview come as a result of feedback from developers.

It’s because of dev input that the software giant enhanced support for state machines in Windows Workflow, and also worked to make it easier for developers to use HTML5 and CSS3 in ASP.NET, or to do asynchronous programming in C# and Visual Basic.

.NET Framework 4.5 Developer Preview is available for download here. Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3) is available for download here.