Each version of Visual Studio has a corresponding version of the .NET Framework that is the natural/default version for it. It’s the latest version of the .NET Framework that existed when the particular version of Visual Studio was released. For example:
VS2015 — .NET 4.6
VS2013 — .NET 4.5 (actually 4.5.1, but we only care about major/minor numbers)
VS2012 — .NET 4.5
VS2010 — .NET 4.0
VS2008 — .NET 3.5
VS2005 — .NET 2.0
If using a particular version of Visual Studio, this determines everything else. (You could, for example, use VS2015 with .NET 4.0, but why bother?) Here are the choices:
| VS2015 | .NET 4.6 | Chilkat .NET for 4.6 | needs VC++ 2015 runtime | (also known as VC++ 14) |
| VS2013 | .NET 4.5 | Chilkat .NET for 4.5 (built with VS2013) | needs VC++ 2013 runtime | (also known as VC++ 12) |
| VS2012 | .NET 4.5 | Chilkat .NET for 4.5 (built with VS2012) | needs VC++ 2012 runtime | (also known as VC++ 11) |
| VS2010 | .NET 4.0 | Chilkat .NET for 4.0 | needs VC++ 2010 runtime (x86)(x64) | (also known as VC++ 10) |
| VS2005/2008 | .NET 2.0/3.5 | Chilkat .NET for 2.0/3.5 | needs VC++ 2005 runtime (x86)(x64) | (also known as VC++ 8) |