14 DAY TRIAL // Only users running .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 on top of Windows Vista will be able to perform upgrades to Windows 7 and retail all the functionality of the framework. At this point in time however, upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 will generate a range of problems for .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 and leave it unusable in certain scenarios. Microsoft revealed that it was aware of the issues and that the next development milestone of .NET Framework 4 would not feature the same problems as the beta 1 release.
Developers that have already jumped on the Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 wagon, and which are leveraging the first Beta release for .NET Framework 4 on top of Windows Vista should stay away from upgrades to Windows 7.
“I'm an early adopter so I've been running Beta 1 of .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 on a Vista machine. However, Beta 1 of .NET 4 doesn't survive an upgrade to Windows 7 and leaves the .NET Framework in a goofy and unfixable state. Beta 2 won't have this problem,” revealed Scott Hanselman, Microsoft principal program manager.
Let me make this perfectly clear. The problems are not caused by either Windows Vista or Windows 7. In fact, .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 works seamlessly on both the previous and the latest iteration of the Windows client. But it is the upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 that manages to deliver functionality problems for .NET Framework 4 Beta 1.
What kind of problems? Well, developers will discover that managed code is not functioning and that .NET 4.0 Beta 1 applications become handicapped. Devs with ClickOnce applications installed will experience continuous crashes of Windows Explorer when they log in.
“So, in a nutshell if you're running .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 on Vista you've got two options. 1. Uninstall, Upgrade, Reinstall. Uninstall Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1. Uninstall .NET Framework 4. Upgrade to Windows 7. Reinstall .NET Framework 4 and Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1. Or: 2. Clean Install. You can do a clean install of Windows 7, which is what I did anyway, as I like my Major OS Upgrades to be fresh. When you're talking about OS Upgrades and Early Beta Software, if you really want to be confident, I say clean install,” Hanselman stated.
.NET Framework 4.0 Beta 1 is available for download here.