I maintain a Windows 7 Home Premium laptop for a friend. It is used primarily for storage (photos etc.) but occasionally a family member does go online with it so I would like to keep it as up to date as possible. It has 0Patch and is currently updated through the April 2022 Windows ESU updates, but it has .NET framework 4.5.2, which has now received its last update. I’m not sure how best to proceed.
The laptop appears to have come with .NET 4.5.2 installed, so I don’t have any idea what programs or apps might need it. I gather that it’s not a good idea to just uninstall it, if that’s even possible. So I imagine I need to update to a later version to avoid a security risk going forward, is that right? .NET is such a pain.
Long ago I hid KB4503548, the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 for Windows 7 x64, since at the time it came out it didn’t seem to work well with Windows 7, or at least the advice on AskWoody was to wait. Well it’s still waiting. I see that some Windows 7 users here on AskWoody successfully run .NET 4.8 on their machines. Should I try installing the update by unhiding it and then hope that Windows Update offers the necessary updates through Win7 EOS, and then install the more recent ones as I have with the other Windows updates? Am I likely to run into problems installing that KB4503548 since it is so old? Are there other pitfalls that I’m likely to encounter?
I see that “.NET Framework 4.7.2 Runtime” is available to download from the dotnet site. Would it make sense to download and install it instead of 4.8, since 4.7 works well on my own Windows 7 laptop? Then I might have to go through this all over again when 4.7 reaches end of support, but I can’t seem to find an EOS date for version 4.7. Maybe it would be after we no longer allow Windows 7 to go online.
I do have a current Macrium Reflect image of the laptop to fall back on in case things don’t go well, but I’m just trying to find a path that is least likely to cause problems. I would welcome any advice on how to avoid or minimize problems.
Linux Mint Cinnamon 21.1
Group A:
Win 10 Pro x64 v22H2 Ivy Bridge, dual boot with Linux
Win l0 Pro x64 v22H2 Haswell, dual boot with Linux
Win7 Pro x64 SP1 Haswell, 0patch Pro, dual boot with Linux,offline
Win7 Home Premium x64 SP1 Ivy Bridge, 0patch Pro,offline
