.NET Framework 4.7 is now available

Microsoft has announced the general availability of version 4.7 of the .NET Framework and can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download website. The .NET Framework 4.7 includes improvements in several areas:

• High DPI support for Windows Forms applications on Windows 10
• Touch support for WPF applications on Windows 10
• Enhanced cryptography support
• Support for C# 7 and VB 15, including ValueTuple
• Support for .NET Standard 1.6
• Performance and reliability improvements

You can see the complete list of improvements in the .NET Framework 4.7 release notes.

What is the .NET Framework?
The .NET Framework is a managed execution environment that provides a variety of services to its running applications. It consists of two major components: the common language runtime (CLR), which is the execution engine that handles running applications; and the .NET Framework Class Library, which provides a library of tested, reusable code that developers can call from their own applications. The services that the .NET Framework provides to running applications include the following:

Memory management. In many programming languages, programmers are responsible for allocating and releasing memory and for handling object lifetimes. In .NET Framework applications, the CLR provides these services on behalf of the application.

A common type system. In traditional programming languages, basic types are defined by the compiler, which complicates cross-language interoperability. In the .NET Framework, basic types are defined by the .NET Framework type system and are common to all languages that target the .NET Framework.

An extensive class library. Instead of having to write vast amounts of code to handle common low-level programming operations, programmers can use a readily accessible library of types and their members from the .NET Framework Class Library.

Development frameworks and technologies. The .NET Framework includes libraries for specific areas of application development, such as ASP.NET for web applications, ADO.NET for data access, and Windows Communication Foundation for service-oriented applications.

Language interoperability. Language compilers that target the .NET Framework emit an intermediate code named Common Intermediate Language (CIL), which, in turn, is compiled at run time by the common language runtime. With this feature, routines written in one language are accessible to other languages, and programmers can focus on creating applications in their preferred language or languages.

Version compatibility. With rare exceptions, applications that are developed by using a particular version of the .NET Framework can run without modification on a later version.

Side-by-side execution. The .NET Framework helps resolve version conflicts by allowing multiple versions of the common language runtime to exist on the same computer. This means that multiple versions of applications can also coexist, and that an application can run on the version of the .NET Framework with which it was built.

Multitargeting. By targeting the .NET Framework Portable Class Library, developers can create assemblies that work on multiple .NET Framework platforms, such as Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Phone, and Xbox 360.

Download the .NET Framework 4.7

.NET Framework 4.7 Web installer
There are separate installers for web and offline installation. If you intend to redistribute either of these installers in the setup for your own product or application, Microsoft recommend that you choose the web installer because it is smaller and typically downloads faster. The web installer is a small package (less than 1 MB) that automatically determines and downloads only the components applicable for a particular platform. The web installer also installs the language pack matching the language of the user’s operating system.  You can download the Web installer from here.

.NET Framework 4.7 Offline installer
The offline package can be used in situations where the web installer cannot be used due to lack of internet connectivity. This package is larger than the web installer and does not include the language packs. You can download the offline installer from here.

System Requirements
Supported Operating System

• Windows 7 SP1 (x86 and x64)
• Windows 8.1 (x86 and x64)
• Windows 10 Anniversary Update (x86 and x64)
• Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (x64)
• Windows Server 2012 (x64)
• Windows Server 2012 R2 (x64)
• Windows Server 2016 (x64)

Minimum Hardware Requirements:

• 1 GHz or faster processor
• 512 MB of RAM
• 4.5 GB of available hard disk space (x86)
• 4.5 GB of available hard disk space (x64)

References
Microsoft
.NET Blog