You must use the Role Management Tool to install or configure Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.

While trying to install Visual Studio 2008 on a Windows 2008 R2 machine you may get the following error.

This is because Windows 2008 R2 ships with the .NET 3.5.1 framework. You just need to enable the feature from Server Manager.

So before starting the Visual Studio 2008 Setup install the .NET Framework 3.5.1 Features from the Add Features Wizard in Server Manager.

After that when you run the Visual Studio 2008 Setup, the installer will detect that the 3.5 framework is already installed and skip to the next step.

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 18, 2009
  Excellent assistance with this one

• Anonymous
  September 01, 2009
  You can also use powershell cmdlets to install .NET 3.5.1 import-module ServerManager Get-command -module ServerManager CommandType     Name -----------     ---- Cmdlet          Add-WindowsFeature Cmdlet          Get-WindowsFeature Cmdlet          Remove-WindowsFeature Get-WindowsFeature NET Add-WindowsFeature AS-NET-Framework

• Anonymous
  September 20, 2009
  Cool! I'm confused by this error message for about half hour...

• Anonymous
  October 07, 2009
  Another command you can use (without PowerShell) to install .NET 3.5 SP1 on Server 2008 R2 is this: %windir%system32ocsetup.exe NetFx3

• Anonymous
  January 07, 2010
  does anyone else get annoyed by the guy in the photo above when you're installing visual studio?

• Anonymous
  January 12, 2010
  thanks for the good instructions!

• Anonymous
  February 22, 2010
  Thank you for the helpful instructions @justin I nearly felt offended by the way that guy looks at me.

• Anonymous
  February 23, 2010
  They should include that one little bit of information that it is in Features with the error message. Don't want to make it too easy I guess.

• Anonymous
  February 28, 2010
  Thanks for your help. good source!

• Anonymous
  March 04, 2010
  Muchas gracias! de gran ayuda!..saludos

• Anonymous
  March 10, 2010
  i got this url on single click. quite helpful.

• Anonymous
  March 11, 2010
  Thanks for your help. good source!

• Anonymous
  March 14, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 03, 2010
  Thanks for the info.  I'm trying to install Forefront TMG and ran into this error right at the start of setup.  Once I install .NET 3.5 the install ran fine.

• Anonymous
  April 11, 2010
  It never ceases to amaze me how an enterprise like Microsoft, can't get it's own products right, why isn't this a normal part of the installation prerequisites? It's like starting a Rolls Royce with battery support from the lawnmower. And it's a very cryptic message, it's a feature, not a role!

• Anonymous
  April 13, 2010
  I Googled the error msg and ended up here.  Thank you!

• Anonymous
  April 21, 2010
  First result on google, thanks.  Couldn't figure this one out without ya!

• Anonymous
  April 24, 2010
  thanks for blogging this. I was getting stuck in the path.

• Anonymous
  April 26, 2010
  Very Helpful, thank you! I was really puzzled with this error.

• Anonymous
  May 25, 2010
  thanks.

• Anonymous
  May 28, 2010
  Thank you very much

• Anonymous
  June 28, 2010
  Muchisimas gracias vijaysk !!

• Anonymous
  July 19, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 14, 2010
  Great explanation and easy to understand. Thanks

• Anonymous
  September 26, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  October 01, 2010
  Microsoft is so faulty, bloated and insecure that I hate the thought of using their products

• Anonymous
  October 06, 2010
  Tks Muito Obrigado - SP - Brasil

• Anonymous
  October 21, 2010
  Thanks, i was looking for this buton for quite a lot of time

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2010
  Image the life without such help from the internet!! Will struggle for days and even then would not get anywhere. I guess the system need to be designed smart enough to guide us through such issues.

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2010
  It is really very helpful,,, Thanks ideed

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2010
  It is really very helpful,,, Thanks ideed

• Anonymous
  November 26, 2010
  Concise and to the point - very simple instructions with clear screen shots. Works similarly when trying to install SQL Server 2008. Well done and thank you.

• Anonymous
  December 02, 2010
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  December 21, 2010
  It was really helpful. Thanks for your tips virtualizesharepoint.com

• Anonymous
  January 31, 2011
  Definitely a clear and helpful post.  Thanks!

• Anonymous
  February 24, 2011
  Thanks a lot, I was strugling to get these kind of clear info. Many thanks again

• Anonymous
  March 29, 2011
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 11, 2011
  Thanks!  Just what I needed!  Worked perfect!

• Anonymous
  May 25, 2011
  it's works sojib2bd http://sojib2bd.com

• Anonymous
  June 01, 2011
  I have remove the feature, and instal again and the system returns the same message. I only want to Instal framework 3.5 i have already the vs 2010

• Anonymous
  June 21, 2011
  This certainly helped me. I've been looking around all over the net until I met this page. Love you the author ^_^

• Anonymous
  July 15, 2011
  Thank you for your post! It helped me install .Net Fx 3.5 on my Win8 Server R2.

• Anonymous
  July 26, 2011
  Excellent !!! this helped me lot !!!

• Anonymous
  August 03, 2011
  Thanks for the post! It was helpful :)

• Anonymous
  August 10, 2011
  It is a good help thanks.  I prefer english cheese to dutch.

• Anonymous
  August 16, 2011
  thank you very much! This is so helpful.

• Anonymous
  August 26, 2011
  Thanks for posting Shinva!  I encountered this error message while trying to install the 3.5 SP1 framework on Windows Server 2008 R2 because it was required by the installation of Denali.  Not being a sysadmin, I found this a rather cryptic message, especially because you don't need to open a tool called "Role Manager" but you need the Server Manager instead. Oh well, problem solved! Best Regards, Valentino - http://blog.hoegaerden.be

• Anonymous
  September 23, 2011
  I found it to be helpful as I hit the exact error while installing Visual Studio 2008

• Anonymous
  October 13, 2011
  Great explanation for dummies like me. Tks.

• Anonymous
  January 03, 2012
  Thanks for the information, keep it up.

• Anonymous
  May 28, 2012
  On Steve Jobs one can find a quote that applies perfectly here: " How much dummer can Microsft get" ?????

• Anonymous
  May 30, 2012
  You sir are direct and to the point with instructions. Awesome JOB! Really appreciate this.

• Anonymous
  October 03, 2012
  Excillent!!!! Simple, effective.. Thank you very much!!!!

• Anonymous
  October 17, 2012
  Good one. Thanks for your knowledge share.

• Anonymous
  October 17, 2012
  Thanks, was looking in roles for ages and didn't think to look in "features"

• Anonymous
  November 28, 2012
  Thanks for the help. Nice assistance.

• Anonymous
  December 02, 2012
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• Anonymous
  December 14, 2012
  Perfect help!  I was checking all through the roles options like so many others in your comments.   Thanks so much for posting!  

• Anonymous
  January 16, 2013
  Thank you very much. That saved me a lot of time during SQLServer 2012 installation on Windows Server 2008 R2.

• Anonymous
  June 02, 2013
  Thanks.  This was the easiest fix I have ever found.

• Anonymous
  December 18, 2013
  tan simple y yo haciendome problemas... gracias

• Anonymous
  January 25, 2014
  Dear  am  instaling exchange server 2010 on server 2008r2 and faced the same problem and the mark exist and problem exists :(

• Anonymous
  February 19, 2014
  Thanks a lot! I tried to install .net 3 by hand and got always the error message.  

• Anonymous
  June 16, 2014
  It takes a Microsoft product to not only fail to permit this install via the normal routes, but to give you an error directing you to the "Role Manager" where you actually have to click on "Features" instead of "Roles" to find this... Kind of like you can't log in as an Administrator to be Administrator. You have to first give Administrator the Administrator privileges to act as the Administrator. Derp!!! The fact that a blog post exists explaining where to find the place to install something this trivial is a conclusive mark of UI failure on your part, Redmond. Stop being dumb, please. Earth will thank you.

• Anonymous
  July 22, 2014
  Straight and to the point - works a charm. Thanks

• Anonymous
  August 19, 2014
  Thanks for the valuable info. That was very helpful.

• Anonymous
  March 29, 2015
  I was trying to install .NET 2 on my Server 2008 R2 and was getting this error. According to this guy: www.itsupportforum.net/.../how-to-install-dotnet-2-on-server-2008-r2 .NET 3.5 installed in the way you recommend contains .NET 2.0 because it's backwards compatible... So that might be useful for someone.

• Anonymous
  May 11, 2015
  Excellent, Good that worked for me.