I’ve switched over to Microsoft Windows 8 from Windows Vista (yeah, I know, I should have immediately jumped to Win7) and one of my programs no longer works. I checked with the vendor and they said that it’s because ASP.NET isn’t automatically enabled in Win8. That’s weird. How do I get it running on my Windows 8 system?
Couldn’t agree with you more, it is weird that Microsoft has backed away from the framework that defined so much of how Windows systems worked on the Internet. The good news is that ASP.NET is actually included with WIN8, it’s just disabled by default, so getting it up and running is a matter of just a minute or two.
Not sure what ASP.NET actually is? You’re not alone. Here’s how Microsoft describes ASP.NET on its developer site:
“ASP.NET is a unified Web development model that includes the services necessary for you to build enterprise-class Web applications with a minimum of coding. ASP.NET is part of the .NET Framework, and when coding ASP.NET applications you have access to classes in the .NET Framework. You can code your applications in any language compatible with the common language runtime (CLR), including Microsoft Visual Basic and C#.”
Got it? 🙂
Of course, regardless of whether you actually care about ASP.NET or not, it’s clear that your program does. So let’s just fix it.
You want to get to your Control Panels and, no question, the fastest way do to that in Win8 is to simply start typing “control” into the Start screen. Yup, no search box, no special anything. Just start typing…
There ya go, it shows up as the first option under Apps. Handy. Press Return or simply click on it to launch the Win8 Control Panels window, a window that looks a lot like Win7 and, for that matter, Vista. Scroll down until you can find “Programs and Features”:
The main section of the Programs and Features window is a list of apps you have installed and can uninstall if you’re so inclined:
That’s not what we want, however. The link you seek is “Turn Windows features on or off” on the left side. Click on it and you get to a window that looks like it was designed back in Windows 95 days 🙂
ASP.NET is part of the .NET Framework and you definitely want to use the most modern version unless told otherwise, so click on the “+” immediately adjacent to the second entry, “.NET Framework 4.5 Advanced Services”. ASP.NET, finally, shows up:
That’s it. Click the checkbox adjacent to “ASP.NET 4.5”, then click “OK” on the bottom.
The window closes, and after a moment or two the system will start unpacking the necessary additions to the system:
After maybe a minute or so everything will be properly installed, updated and ready for … you guessed it .. a restart:
Click “Restart now” and once your system finishes applying the updates on shutdown and restarts, you’re good to go and ASP.NET 4.5 will be running forevermore, which should hopefully get your software program working properly again too.