Paint.NET v3.5.5 Beta … now with .NET v4!

Edit: Updated forum link. Also, this build is now available via the built-in auto-updater!

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET v4 are out! As usual, Scott Hanselman has some good coverage on this so I won’t repeat what he’s already published.

Anyway. Back in January, I announced that Paint.NET would be removing support for XP SP2 and Vista RTM “later this year.” Well, that time has come! From now on, Paint.NET will require XP SP3 or Vista SP1 (or Windows 7 of course). This is a result of migrating to .NET v4. I’ve spent the last few hours upgrading Paint.NET v3.5.5 to Visual Studio 2010 and .NET v4, along with a small army of fixes and changes that come with any big upgrade like this.

So, if you’d like to try out the first version of Paint.NET ported to use the brand spankin’ new .NET v4 …

… then head over to the forum and download it!

Please note that there are no .NET v4 specific changes or upgrades to Paint.NET. None. Please don’t ask me if it’s using System.Threading.Tasks, or Windows Workflow, etc. The answer’s no 🙂 Paint.NET will of course benefit from all of the regular optimizations that are in .NET v4, and this is also serving to pave the road for Paint.NET v4 to have a more seamless upgrade path. It also helps to unify my development setup so that I won’t need two copies of Visual Studio installed. Lastly, it helps to avoid a lot of confusion since otherwise installing .NET v4 would not enable you to install Paint.NET v3.5.4; it would still bark at you to install .NET 3.5 SP1. This is due to .NET’s side-by-side versioning system (which is actually a very good thing).

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14 thoughts on “Paint.NET v3.5.5 Beta … now with .NET v4!”

  1. André says:

    Could you compile it against the Client Profile version of .net 4? This doesn’t include all the asp.net and wcf stuff which most people don’t need.

    • André says:

      ok, great. You should point more out that it will run on the client profile, so that the normal users don’t need the full .net 4 framework.

      • Rick Brewster says:

        *shrug* Paint.NET always downloads prereqs, so it’s not something you ever need to directly worry about for standalone installation scenarios. So, “normal users” wouldn’t really be impacted either way. Nonetheless, some people do care of course.

  3. Lorenzo says:

    Hi Rick,

    I know almost nothing about .NET framework but I’d like to know the following: why did you decide not to support XP SP2 anymore if .NET Framework 4 can be successfully installed on it?
    I tried to install it “just for fun” (though SP3 was in system requirements), using the standalone installer from Microsoft site; the installation was completed without errors.
    More in general, is there an “easy” way to verify if .NET Framework 4 is correctly installed on my machine? Maybe I think it’s installed but it’s actually not working 🙂
    Thanks and regards,
    Lorenzo

    • Rick Brewster says:

      It states XP SP3 and Vista SP1 in the system requirements. It may install on XP SP2 or Vista RTM, but there is no way I can trust that it will correctly work there. As far as I know it is a bug in the installer, and there will be all sorts of other problems down the line.

  4. chesscanoe says:

    I modified ‘Check for Updates’ in 3.5.4 and then attempted an update. It appeared to update but really did not for Paint.NET 3.5.4. Only when I did a Restart so NET 4.0 could finish installing, would 3.5.5 actually subsequently install with a ‘Check for Updates’. Works well under Win7 x64.

    • Rick Brewster says:

      Yeah I’ve received reports of this and have reproduced it myself. On further investigation and talking with the .NET guys, I don’t believe I’m going to be able to directly target .NET 4 with this v3.5.5 update. I may be able to make it compatible with .NET 4 though — there were just a few changes needed for that, there was actually a bug *fix* in WinForms that affected Paint.NET. At least then we’ll avoid version confusion hell where people say, “omg i installed .net 4 and it’s still asking for .net 3.5 what is going on ur a terrible dev!”

  5. John Dangerbrooks says:

    I am quite skeptical about the wisdom behind this constant increase of software requirements in Paint.NET. If you keep it up like this, soon computers which are able to run Adobe Photoshop or such high-end applications won’t be able to run Paint.NET.

    I am concerned that people with Windows XP (the operating system which currently has 64% of the entire Windows market share) will soon be unable to run Paint.NET.

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