Getting your thing adopted as a Windows component and distributed by Windows Update is a common trap for Microsoft developers. It's always a mistake if you're i

Getting your thing adopted as a Windows component and distributed by Windows Update is a common trap for Microsoft developers. It's always a mistake if you're in some DevDiv or random app team instead of the Windows team. Windows is the slowest-moving product that Microsoft has, and users don't install updates. Hitching your wagon to Windows means no two users will have the same version installed, and getting people to update .NET via Windows Update is a nightmare. God forbid the Windows team decides to stop supporting a version of Windows that is still commonly use in industry; they'll never get a .NET update again. As a user, think about how annoying it is to get a message saying you need to run Windows Update before you can start an application. Totally unnecessary own-goal for the team that decided to ship their independent component in Windows Update. It's way easier to either 1.) go self-contained, or 2.) use the on-the-fly .NET download for a framework-dependent build. I absolutely think they made the right call removing current .NET as a Windows component. The annoyance was far greater when .NET Framework was part of Windows.