Yesterday, the Microsoft .NET 3.0 Framework was released. This is comprised of the .NET Framework 2.0 plus Windows Workflow Foundation, Windows Presentation Foundation, and the Windows Communication Foundation. This release is intended to increase the scope of the original base class library, so while the 2.0 BCL is included this whole release is 3.0.

This package is actually made-up of multiple Windows Installer packages, and the setup.exe bootstrap application will download only those packages needed. So, if you already have .NET 2.0 installed you won’t need to download that 22+ MB (x86) or 45+ MB (x64) package. For redistribution or just to have the whole package on hand, you can find it lower on the .NET Framework 3.0 download page.

Along with the release of the .NET Framework 3.0, the Windows SDK for Vista and .NET Framework 3.0 is also available. An ISO is available so you can burn this to a DVD.