Targeting .NET Framework 4.5 via Visual Studio 2010

Question

Today I installed the .NET Framework 4.5 on my machine expecting to be able to use it from Visual Studio 2010, since it's just a minor update that should't pose problems for Visual Studio 2010. Unfortunately I am not, even manually removing certain 4.0 and adding the corresponding 4.5 assemblies resulted in the original 4.0 assemblies still being referenced in the project.

Is it possible to target version 4.5 from Visual Studio 2010 and if yes, how? I'd really like to use the ribbons...

Answer 1

Each version of Visual Studio prior to Visual Studio 2010 is tied to a specific .NET framework. (VS2008 is .NET 3.5, VS2005 is .NET 2.0, VS2003 is .NET1.1) Visual Studio 2010 and beyond allow for targeting of prior framework versions but cannot be used for future releases. You must use Visual Studio 2012 in order to utilize .NET 4.5.