If you’ve tried installing the vSphere 5.5 client on Windows 8 you may have received the following error message
Error 28173.Setup failed to enable Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5. Enable this feature in Windows Server Manager before installing vCenter Server.
This is because Windows 8 doesn’t enable the .NET Framework 3.5 by default and vSphere 5.5 is dependant on it.
To correct this you simply need to enable .Net 3.5 in your Windows settings. There are two ways of doing this depending on whether you have an internet connection or not.
Internet method
- Click start on Windows 8.1 or press the Windows key on 8.0
- Select “PC Settings”
- Select “Control Panel”
- Select “Programs and Features”
- Select “Turn Windows features on or off”
- Check “.NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0)”
- Hit OK
- When prompted select install from Windows Update
Offline method
- Insert your Windows 8 installation disc
- Click start on Windows 8.1 or press the Windows key on 8.0
- Select the arrow for all programs
- Locate “Command Prompt”, right-click on it and select “Run as administrator”
- Run this command
dism /online /enable-feature /all /featurename:NetFX3 /source:drive_letter:\sources\sxs
- Where
drive_letter
is the drive letter of your Windows 8 disc
- Where
Once you’ve done one of these methods you’ll then be able to run the vSphere 5.5 install as normal.