My system is Windows XP Professional. I have VS .NET 1.0 and VS .NET 1.1 both installed. I do realize that they don’t interfere with one another.
In my Control Panel Add or Remove Programs window, there are listings for the following:
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable — 5.21 megabytes
It says that I last used this on 11/12/2008, which is a lie. I have never used it, at least not to my knowledge.
Microsoft Visual J# .NET Redistributable Package 1.1 — 12.94 megabytes
It says that I use this “frequently”, and that the last time I used it was 9/12/2003(!). That’s probably right. I probably opened it, looked at it, and closed it. But I wouldn’t call it “frequent”.
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect - English — 1.48 gigabytes
This is the one that I suspect is .NET 1.0. It says that I last used it on 7/23/2003, but I don’t think that’s right. I think I’ve used it since then.
**Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Professional 2003 - English **— 990 megabytes
This is the one that I suspect is .NET 1.1. It says that I last used it on 10/1/2003, but I’m fairly certain I’ve used it a couple times since then.
Also listed are
Microsoft .NET Framework (English) v1.0.3705 — 1.4 megabytes
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0 Hotfix (KB928367) — 990 megabytes
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 — 990 megabytes
**Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0 Hotfix (KB928366) **— 990 megabytes
I also have Microsoft SQL Server Installed, but I fear uninstalling it, in case it also uninstalls Enterprise Manager, which I use every day. I don’t use the SQL Engine itself. You get, like, 30 days or something, and then have to pay, like, a thousand bucks or something. So, I’ve never activated it.
(Yes, I know I could have written an Enterprise Manager equivalent, but it’s already there, and its associated tools, like Query Analyzer, are handy as hell.)
So… now that the information is out there, here’s what I’m getting at.
I either want to restart programming with .NET 1.1. It would be for XP desktop applications only, so I don’t need any fancy web stuff.
OR
I want to download Visual Studio 2008 Express and SQL Server 2008 Express, both of which I’m told are fully functioning. It’s just that VS lacks the crap they put in for team development (which usually works like shit anyway, and I work alone). And SQL has a top limit of 2 gig of data. Both of them are allegedly “free” from Microsoft.
I do believe I would be happy with both those limitations.
So here are the questions:
-
Should I uninstall the two .NET version 1.0 things just because they’re pretty much dead weight? If so, what will happen if I run a program that needs that engine. Will it prompt me for a download or just crash?
-
Since I have MDAC, I am perfectly happy with MS Access. But will .NET 1.1 connect to an MS Access database? Is there a legacy class for dealing with ADO? Or would I have to revert back to VB6 to use MS Access. (I have VB6, and am not ashamed to use it.)
-
Is there any reason to trust Microsoft giving away its Visual Studio and MS SQL software for free? Obviously, it will take up a lot of space, but unless there are weird catches and gotchas, I won’t ever have more than 2 gig of data, and their demonstrations of 2008 are impressive indeed. (No mention of MS Access, though. But with SQL, I wouldn’t neet it.)
And finally…
- Is there any reason to keep around the earlier versions if I decide to get 2008? Or again, will programs using their engines crap out and die? If 2008 is really huge, I will need the space.
Any help? I’ve searched the computer questions thread, and there’s nothing about this there. Thank you.