Summary

Symptoms

When building an InstallShield setup, the following error may occur:

Error -6247: The .NET Framework redistributable [1] is not found on the system. [2]

[1] and [2] are placeholders that contain the specific path to the file not found. The file specified is either dotnetfx.exe or dotnetredist.exe.

Cause

This error occurs when the files dotnetredist.exe and dotnetredistSp2.exe are not located in the correct locations. These files are critical to the .NET Framework installation, and this build error occurs if these files are not in the expected location on the build machine.

This error is known to occur in the following scenarios:

1. The .NET Framework is not properly installed, or the files are missing. InstallShield Express offers full .NET support. The .NET Framework must be installed on the development machine to take advantage of this functionality.

2. The .NET Framework was included in the release but is not installed and is not required by your application.

3. You do not have sufficient privileges to access the location specified in the error message.

Resolution

Follow these steps:

1. If using Express 5.x or later, run InstallShield Express in Modify mode. To do this, re-insert the InstallShield CD or re-run the InstallShield Express installer. When the Maintenance dialog appears, choose the Modify option. Make sure the feature ".NET Redistributables" is selected. If the same behavior occurs after doing this, run InstallShield Express in Repair mode using the same steps as indicated above but choose the Repair option instead of Modify. After updating InstallShield Express, rebuild your setup to include the changes.

   Another option is to use the Redistributable Downloader utility from the Tools pull-down menu. This utility allows you to download various versions of the .NET Framework to be used in your projects.

2. If using InstallShield Express 4.x or earlier or if the above steps don't work for Express 5.x and later, download and install the .NET Framework from Microsoft directly. After installing the .NET Framework, copy the dotnetredist*.exe files mentioned in the Cause section of this article to the location specified in the error message. After doing this, rebuild your setup.

3. If you included the .NET Framework in the release, but it is not required by your application and is not installed, follow these steps to remove it from your release:
   1. Select the Build Your Release view.

   2. Click the desired release.

   3. In the property sheet, locate the .NET Framework Location property.

   4. Make sure its value is set to Do Not Include.

   5. Rebuild the setup.

4. Contact your system administrator to verify that you have sufficient security privileges to access the file location specified in the error message.