Is ASP.NET installed on your own computer, and what version?

First make sure that Internet Information Service 'IIS' is installed and working by opening Internet Explorer and typing in 'http://localhost/'. If an IIS documentation page appears then IIS is installed and working fine. If IIS isn't installed read our IIS installation page and for further reading check out this article on 'options for a web server'.

Next check for the .NET framework on your local machine by looking for the folders in the following path:
System Drive:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v[VERSION]
My local development machine has 3 different versions ‘v1.0.3705’, ‘v1.14322’ and ‘v2.0.50727’ all running side by side. I found the .NET framework Version 2 in the folder C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727.

Another way to check if your computer already has ASP.NET installed is navigate to Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs and scroll down the list of currently installed programs checking for the .NET Framework.

Figure 1

You can see that the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 is installed, so if the Framework is installed and IIS is up and running we can run ASP.NET pages.

Another way to check for ASP.NET and the version on Windows XP Professional is to navigate 'start > control panel > administrative tools > Internet Information Services' and then select the 'Web Sites' node as shown below in figure 2.

Figure 2

Next right click on 'Web Sites' and select 'Properties'. You should hopefully see a tab for ASP.NET, click on it and you'll see the version listed as figure 3 demonstrates.

Figure 3

If there's no version of the .NET Framework and ASP.NET on your machine read this article on installing ASP.NET and the .NET Framework.

If there's a version of the .NET Framework present then we can move on to the next step of testing the asp.net installation to make sure that everything is functioning correctly.

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