What is the correct way to automatically update .NET installations on my Windows Servers?

Question

I have seen articles that say I can have all versions of .NET installed on my Windows Server auto-update by setting the Registry key named AllowAUOnServerOS located at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft.NET to a DWORD value of 1.

I have also seen on this Q&A web site a reference to the location of HKLM\Software\Microsoft.NET as the place to drop the AllowAUOnServerOS key.

Which is correct?

Also, once I have the correct location and key values set, when is the actual update performed? Is it when I run a Windows Update?

Answer 1

For .NET Core (3.1+) you set the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\.NET key's AllowAUOnServerOS value. You can read about it here. Not sure what sites you've seen documenting the other keys so I cannot answer as to what they are talking about. If you provide the links then perhaps we can look. Note that HKLM\Software\Microsoft.NET is historically tied to the older NET Framework versions.

Also note that the preferred approach is to either just use the UI to enable updating Microsoft products when Windows Update runs or, if on a network, use a group policy to enable the updates. Registry hacking is a last resort.

NET Framework updates should be auto-applied when you run Windows Updates. NET Core updates, if this is enabled, will also be applied at that time. Note however that it only applies to apps that are framework dependent. Apps that are deployed as self contained must be updated using whatever update process they ship with.