Typing this post right now from Windows 8 Consumer Preview, I have had a successful installation yesterday, but only really got caught up in one or two issues that needed to be addressed. One that I am sure some of you are running into are applications requiring the .NET Framework prior to .NET Framework 4. I was trying to install Fences on my desktop to organize icons and ran into this along with TweetDeck as well.
I would get a notification after the installation would complete or trying to run the program that I needed to enable .NET Framework 3.5. in order to run the application. Thinking back prior to other operating systems, no problem, I would just download through Windows Update or download directly from Microsoft and get that fixed without an issue. With Windows 8 now, that isn’t quite so easy. By default, Windows 8 comes with .NET Framework 4, but no other ones. So, you can enable this in one quick way to solve it permanently or if that doesn’t work I have discovered two other possible ways to enable this. I will outline the three methods below:
Option 1 Enabling Through Programs and Features
Open Control Panel. Click on Programs then Programs and Features. Select Turn Windows Features On or Off. Check off .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0).
You will then get notified that you can only connect to Windows Update or cancel to enable the feature.
Giving it some time to download, you should then receive a success window after the changes are completed.
Well what if that doesn’t work?
As some of you may be figuring out with the new installs or upgrade of Windows 8 Consumer Preview, you may get an error message:
0x800F0906 – Windows could not download necessary files from Windows Update. Check your network connection, and try again by pressing ‘Retry’ button below.
If you do receive this error message, there are a few possible solutions for this. The first thing to consider before anything is if you are connected to WSUS server. If you are, please take a look at this Microsoft forum link to see about either denying that machine from updates temporarily or making some changes to your WSUS server:
Windows Update WSUS – 0x800F0906
Then you would retry option 1 to see if that works.
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Option 2 – Mounting Windows 8 ISO
So you are not connected to a WSUS server and you are still getting issues with trying to enable features, well there is still some other ways to get this working!
Option 2 is finding your Windows 8 Consumer Preview ISO and mounting that on your machine. Find out what drive letter that got mounted to because this is important for the command line you will be running. Once that is found out, open up and elevated command line and enter the following code to copy the files from the \sources\sxs folder of the mounted ISO to a new folder on the C Drive:
xcopy g:\sources\sxs\*.* c:\dotnet35 /s
This will copy the those files to a new folder labeled dotnet35 on your C Drive.
Next now copy the following code and paste that into your command line (Make sure this is an elevated command prompt – Run as Administrator)
Dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /Source:c:\dotnet35 /LimitAccess
*(Note: This make take some time to install)*
That should then run the Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool and you should then get .NET Framework 3.5 installed through this method. If the progress bar gets to 100% then you can go back into Program and Features and the check box for .NET Framework 3.5 should now be checked.
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Option 3 – Installing from Windows 8 ISO Disc (method that worked for me)
So you tried option one..you got the 0x800F0906 error, option two gave you a progress bar to 65% like this:
[===========================65.8%====== ] and then if fails with a source files can’t be found? This is the same process I went through yesterday, and then this option 3 did the trick for me! I actually burned the ISO to a disk and I am sure you can attempt to do this with the mounted ISO as well, but what I did differently was I literally copied all the files from the Windows 8 DVD and pasted them in the dotnet35 folder on the C Drive.
Once I got all those files copied over, I then went again into an elevated command prompt and copied the same code as above:
Dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /Source:c:\dotnet35 /LimitAccess
This then took a considerable amount of time more (10-15mins) and then made it past the 65.8% and successfully installed the .NET Framework 3.5. Whether, there was a source file in that sxs folder missing from my mounted ISO that i xcopied over, or it just required another file from somewhere else in the ISO copy, this solved my issue for me.
I hope this post can help you out to get those applications that may not be working for you in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and if you have any additonal fixes, please let me know and I can add or make any changes to this post. I hope everyone is enjoying Windows 8 and expect a review of Windows 8 coming up on jeffnaperski.com soon!
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14 comments
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dexter
April 12, 2012 at 9:26 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hej,
I still get stuck on [===========================65.8%====== ] after I tried all your method from option1 to option3, the error code after this 65.8% is 0x800f081f this time.
Do you have any idea to solve this problem?
Sorry to bother, and Thanks!
admin
April 13, 2012 at 12:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It kinda sounds like the same thing that I ran into with that 65.8% issue. I would suggest completely deleting out that dotnet35 folder or whatever folder that you created and just create a new folder and copy over all files from your windows 8 disc. At first I tried to just copy over all the files and it didn’t work until I completely deleted out the folder, rebooted, and then just inserted the windows 8 disc and copied over all the files and attempted the process again.
Let me know if that works and I can see if I can find any other ways to get it to work in the process!
-Jeff
Barbara
April 13, 2012 at 12:20 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I do not locate a dotnet35 folder on my c drive. What do I do?
admin
April 13, 2012 at 12:54 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Barbara,
By default that folder is not there. If you take a look at the post that is a folder that actually should get created when you do that xcopy in command prompt. Are you getting any errors when you try to do the xcopy?
-Jeff
yohanes
November 29, 2012 at 8:21 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hello…
can i get the link of ISO file??
i have use 3 different ISO file and the result is still 0x800f081f…
“The source files could not be found.”…
thanks before…
admin
November 29, 2012 at 9:10 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The ISO link that your talking about could be found wherever you download your Operating Systems from. So that could be eOpen, MSDN, etc.
Let me know if you still are having any issues and I could help out where I can!
shanu
December 12, 2012 at 5:39 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
even after deleting the folder completely,rebooting and copying it again…still dat doesnt works…..its again stopping at 65.8…..plz suggest something
admin
February 6, 2013 at 9:31 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Shanu,
Sorry for the very long delay on a comment back.
Some thoughts I had with what you and other people commenting on issues they were having:
1. Is Windows properly activated. I know it sounds like a stupid question, but it could be having a hard time trying to activate if windows is not genuine.
2. Is command prompt being run as administrator and you are a local administrator on that machine to have the proper permissions to do so. A possible suggestion I have is to maybe even create a new user who has local administrator rights.
3. Here is a link to a Microsoft article that may help as well that looks like it was recently updated as of 1/18/13:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2734782
If you have any additional issues, feel free to send me a direct message on Twitter and I could help you further.
Thanks,
Jeff
ian
December 30, 2012 at 6:19 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I followed your processes. Firstly File not found -*.*, 0 Files copied then “Error 87 online/feature/featurename option unknown”when I used the ‘dism.exe etc. What do I do please as I need to install some program ASAP. Thanks.
admin
February 6, 2013 at 9:30 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ian,
Can you verify the following:
1. Is Windows properly activated. I know it sounds like a stupid question, but it could be having a hard time trying to activate if windows is not genuine.
2. Is command prompt being run as administrator and you are a local administrator on that machine to have the proper permissions to do so. A possible suggestion I have is to maybe even create a new user who has local administrator rights.
3. Here is a link to a Microsoft article that may help as well that looks like it was recently updated as of 1/18/13:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2734782
If you have any additional issues, feel free to send me a direct message on Twitter.
Thanks,
Jeff
dotnetfx35
January 21, 2013 at 3:58 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Tried option 3
“C:\Windows\system32>Dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /S
ource:c:\Folder /LimitAccess
Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.2.9200.16384
Image Version: 6.2.9200.16384
Enabling feature(s)
[===========================65.8%====== ]
Error: 0x800f081f
The source files could not be found.
Use the “Source” option to specify the location of the files that are required t
o restore the feature. For more information on specifying a source location, see
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=243077.
The DISM log file can be found at C:\Windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log
C:\Windows\system32>”
I’m using Windows 8 64bit
admin
February 6, 2013 at 9:30 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Some thoughts that came to mind on your issue:
1. Is Windows properly activated. I know it sounds like a stupid question, but it could be having a hard time trying to activate if windows is not genuine.
2. Is command prompt being run as administrator and you are a local administrator on that machine to have the proper permissions to do so. A possible suggestion I have is to maybe even create a new user who has local administrator rights.
3. Here is a link to a Microsoft article that may help as well that looks like it was recently updated as of 1/18/13:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2734782
If you have any additional issues, feel free to send me a direct message on Twitter.
Thanks,
Jeff
omar
February 6, 2013 at 8:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
i tried everything you mentioned and still no result .. i tried from both the iso and the c drive .. didn’t work , always the “source not found error” at 65.8% .. i also tried the check system health command and it didn’t work as well.. i am sure the command i am entering is correct so what i am doing wrong ?
by the way i didn’t use a different iso as i found otherr people who have the same problem. can you help me ?
admin
February 6, 2013 at 9:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I see a few of you are still having issues. Some other items I want to just make sure you guys did are:
1. Is Windows properly activated. I know it sounds like a stupid question, but it could be having a hard time trying to activate if windows is not genuine.
2. Is command prompt being run as administrator and you are a local administrator on that machine to have the proper permissions to do so. A possible suggestion I have is to maybe even create a new user who has local administrator rights.
3. Here is a link to a Microsoft article that may help as well that looks like it was recently updated as of 1/18/13:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2734782
If you have any additional issues, feel free to send me a direct message on Twitter.
Thanks,
Jeff