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Backport of .NET 2.0 - 3.5 to Windows 9x
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README.md

.NET Framework 2.0 for Windows 95

Introduction

This is a work-in-progress project to backport .NET Framework 2.0 to Windows 95.

Officially, .NET has never been available on Windows 95. The earliest versions (1.0/1.1) supported NT 4.0 and 98SE, but no earlier. This has meant Windows 95 has been deprived of any and all applications written in C#, VB.NET, etc. for its entire existence. This project aims to change that, backporting .NET and several applications written in it in the process.

This project targets .NET Framework 2.0 since it's the latest version to support 9x and is still a supported build target in the latest Visual Studio 2022.

Installation

.NET Framework 2.0 requires the following to be installed:

  • Windows 95 B (OSR 2) or newer. Currently older versions will not work, however I am investigating ways to get around this requirement (see below).
  • Internet Explorer 5.01. The installer is packaged in this repository at bin/msie501. One day I plan to make it an automatic part of the installation process, however for the time being you'll have to run it manually.
  • Microsoft USB Supplement. The installer is packaged in this repository at bin/usbsupp or may be on your Windows 95 install disc at other/updates/usb. This is why 95 B is necessary, the USB supplement makes patches to VMM32.VXD that allow .NET to work, and it isn't available on RTM/A. I am currently investigating why this is necessary and whether it can be patched out.

Once those are installed, simply download dotnet95.exe from the Releases tab and install! After that, applications written for .NET Framework 2.0 should run.

Known Issues

This is a work-in-progress and it is known that .NET still makes some calls to missing system functions that need to be patched or reimplemented. If you run into an unexpected exception or error message, feel free to make a thread in the Issues tab.