I follow Scott Hanselman’s blog and he is a Microsoft fundi, he works for them and he posts regularly about the goings on at Microsoft. One of his posts recently caught my eye and I was glad to see it.

The .Net framework team are allowing people to test the latest Beta release of the .Net 4 client profile via the windows update. The update will be a recommended update when it is officially released about 6-8 weeks after the release of .Net Framework 4.

Below is  comparison of the 4 client profile and 3 client profile.

if you want to test the Beta, then here is how you go about it:

if you have no dot net 4 bits on your machine, Just make a text file with some meaningful name and make sure the file extension is .reg, and put the following text in it:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v4B2WU]"OptIn"=dword:00000001

then save and close it, and double click on the file and it will insert the registry key and you will be able to install the client profile from windows update.

You can do it from an administrator command prompt if you want:

reg.exe add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v4B2WU" /v OptIn /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

I have heard that if you have any .net 4 components installed already, that the client profile will not install.

When they release the client profile it will install over the beta install and will upgrade it.

If you experience any problems, just remember it can be uninstalled, but do report any issues you have at The .Net Framework 4 Setup & deployment support forum.