The most popular tool with which to create Windows software is Microsoft's Visual Studio. Pretty much all programs that you create with it, though, won't run unless the end user's machine has the Microsoft .NET framework installed. That's why, when you install new software on your PC, the installer often complains that you're missing the .NET framework and that you'll need to download and install it before you can continue.

There are literally dozens of versions of the .NET framework, and making sure you have the correct ones installed can be tricky. Which is where a rather neat utility called the .NET Version Detector comes in. It'll tell you which versions are currently installed on your computer, and provide links to all of the other versions in case you want to install them.  Read More