visual studio - What's the difference between the .NET Framework SDK and the Targeting pack

Question

I'm trying to install the .NET Framework 4.7.1 in Visual Studio and I'm given the choice to install:

• .NET Framework 4.7.1 SDK
• .NET Framework 4.7.1 targeting pack

Do I need them both? What's the difference between each of them?

Answer 1

The .NET Framework SDK, is a software development kit (SDK) from Microsoft.

It is required to develop applications for the .NET Framework and it contains:

• documentation
• header files
• libraries
• Samples and tools.

.NET Framework SDK is dedicated to developing applications for .NET Framework. When installing visual studio, this is enough.

Targeting pack is needed when You are targeting a particular .NET framework which is different from your currently installed .NET framework.

In the case of the targeting pack, let's say you build your application using .NET 4.7 but the client has .NET 4.5. For this type of scenario you can target the client's version even though you are using a higher version.

Here you can see how to target a particular .NET framework.