How does .Net Framework versions handle backwards compatibility

Question

I know that XP didn't ship with a version of .NET Framework and I'm fairly certain that .NET 2.0 shipped with Vista. My question is, will installing .Net 2.0 on XP also install support for .Net 1.1 applications as well? Also, is vista 1.1 compatible out of the box.

Answer 1

"Not really" to the first question. .NET 1.1 is an independent framework compared to 2.0. They can happily sit side by side on the same machine. Vista does not include 1.1. If you are trying to use 2.0 to run 1.1 applications, there may be problems. Yes to the second question: It can be installed.