Q & A: Find Your .NET Framework Versions

Q: I’ve understood that Microsoft is going to end support for the 4, 4.5 and 4.51 versions of the .NET Framework in January 2016. How can I find the version of the .NET Framework that I’m running?

A: The easiest way to simply open File Explorer and then navigate to the WindowsMicrosoft.NETFramework directory and look for the different folders there that start with the letter v. In Figure 1 you can see the most current version of the .NET Framework is v4.0.30319.

Figure 1 – Finding the installed versions of the .NET Framework

You can also find your current version of the .NET Framework with PowerShell by examining the CLRVersion property of the $PSVersionTable object like you can see in the following example.

PS C:UsersMichael> $PSVersionTable.CLRVersion

Major  Minor  Build  Revision

-----  -----  -----  --------

4      0      30319  42000

You can download the latest version of the .NET Framework from Microsoft.NET.