Skip to main content

SharePoint 2013 - Setup is unable to proceed due to the following error(s): This product requires Microsoft .Net Framework 4.5

Synopsis

I recently ran into this issue while deploying SharePoint Server 2013.  Everything seemed to go according to plan, before SharePoint Gods decided to throw yet another lightning bolt my way.

Shortly after getting the software prerequisites successfully installed (accompanied by a couple of reboots of course), it was time to install the SharePoint Server software bits.  About a minute after executing the bootstrap (setup.exe) this error message comes up:

"Setup is unable to proceed due to the following error(s): This product requires Microsoft .Net Framework 4.5"

Here is an exact screenshot:


Unless I was loosing my mind, I was pretty confident the software prerequisites installation completed successfully, which performs all the necessary checks and balances on the system, including the installation of .Net Framework 4.5.

The Problem

After running around and attempting to re-install .Net Framework 4.5, which by the way didn't resolve the issue, I proceeded to check the current version of .Net Framework inside the registry.  This can easily be done via Windows PowerShell by executing the following cmdlet at the prompt:

Get-ChildItem 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v4\Client'

This quickly revealed that the current version of .Net Framework was 4.6.x and not 4.5.x.  This presents a bit of a challenge since SharePoint Server 2013 software is strictly checking against 4.5 and not higher.

Further research uncovered an actual KB article released by Microsoft regarding this exact issue.  You can read about it here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3087184

It appears that a recently released patch upgraded the .Net Framework from 4.5.x to version 4.6.x, leaving no trace for the bootstrap program to verify any existence of the previous version.  What now!  Keep reading.

The Solution

The trick is finding the specific KB update which applied the version upgrade and uninstalling it.  In my case this was KB3102467.

Following steps should get you to the promise land:
  1. Uninstall KB3102467
  2. Reboot the machine
  3. Run Setup.exe to install SharePoint Server 2013 software - success!
  4. Run Windows Update to re-install KB3102467
Perform the steps above on each of the server instances.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

SharePoint Server Search - Error Starting

Problem I recently ran into this snag at a client site while setting up the Search Service Application.  I was able to create the service application without a problem however when I attempted to start the SharePoint Server Search service (Manage services on server page) I kept getting Error Starting . After taking a peak at the logs I found the following: An attempt to start/stop instance of service SharePoint Server Search on server did not succeed. Re-run the action via UI or command line on the specified server. Additional information is below. Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED)) I double/triple checked the permissions and made sure that my Farm Administrator account was a member of WSS_WPG and WSS_ADMIN_WPG groups, and that those groups had full control permissions to the C:\Windows\Tasks and C:\Windows\Temp folders. Resolution I nearly lost hope when I remembered my old lost friend called STSADM.EXE. Just like in the old da...

SharePoint Virtual Summit 2017 - What's new for SharePoint and OneDrive?

Recently, during the SharePoint Virtual Summit, Microsoft unveiled yet another roadmap for SharePoint and OneDrive.  If you haven't had a chance to join you can view the recording  here . The most exciting part of all of this is that we won't have to wait long to see these new capabilities become a part of our SharePoint ecosystem.  Most of the features announced are geared towards SharePoint Online and OneDrive in Office 365, which emphasizes Microsoft's strong push to the cloud. There are more than 250,000 organizations and over 85% of Fortune 500 companies that have SharePoint as a part of their Office 365 tenant. Just in the last year, SharePoint usage has grown 90%, content stored has grown 300% and more than 10 million new SharePoint sites have been created. More than 60% of SharePoint licensed seats are now online, reflecting the value customers see with SharePoint in Office 365. So, let's take a look at what Microsoft has coming down the pipe. OneDriv...

SharePoint 2013 - Start a Site Workflow using a Custom Action

In recent travels I've encountered what seems to be either a product limitation or a bug. After digging around some it appeared that I wasn't the only one facing this challenge, and unfortunately there wasn't a concrete enough solution or workaround out there. Hence the blog post hoping to save some of you the unnecessary hair-pulling which I had to endure. My task was fairly simple; "Start a Site Workflow using a Custom Action button". The first part, creating a Custom Action, is trivial. This can be done in Visual Studio or SharePoint Designer. For the sake of simplicity I used SharePoint Designer. Create a Custom Action button Start up SharePoint Designer 2013 and connect to the desired site. From the left navigation select Lists and Libraries. I'm using a simple list called "List One". Boring name, but easy to follow. :) Click on the list name to manage list settings. From the ribbon select Custom Action button then click View Ribb...