The World According to Mitch

I couldn’t believe it.  I had finally installed Windows 8, and I wasn’t able to blog about it.

I use Windows Live Writer as my blogging tool (most of the time).  One of the required pre-requisites is .NET Framework 3.5, and for whatever reason it would not install for me (see screenshot).

The error code in question was 0x800F0906.

Of course, I am sure eventually there will be a new, Metro-based version of Live Writer around General Availability, but until then I was not willing to let my blog fester, and I was not planning to go back to Windows 7.  Don’t get me wrong, Windows 7 was (and may still be) the best operating system Microsoft has ever released.  However Windows 8 looks pretty hot too, and I have loved it for most of the pre-release stages, and in order for me to do what I do I need to be running the latest and greatest.

However in order to do what I do, I also need to be able to blog… let alone print, and my printer’s software also seems to rely on .NET Framework 3.5.

I did some research, and it turns out that for whatever reason this bug has been around for a while and did not get fixed in the RTM code.  I would have to install the feature manually before proceeding.

1. Insert the Windows 8 source media.
2. Find out what drive letter the source media is at.  We’ll call it X:.
3. Open a command prompt with elevated privileges.  To do that, from the start screen (formerly known as Metro) type cmd, and then right-click on the Command Prompt App, and then click Run as Administrator along the bottom of your screen.  (If it doesn’t appear make sure that your search context is Apps.
4. Type the following command into the command prompt:

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /Source:X:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess

(Remember to replace X with your drive letter.

The Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool will kick off, and you should see the progress bar start.  It won’t take too long and you should see the following output, with the line ‘The operation completed successfully.’

Once this is done your .NET Framework 3.5 is installed, and you should be able to install any programs that have it as a pre-requisite.

Enjoy!