Windows Server Hosting Bundle Changes (Add/Remove Programs)

The .NET servicing releases for August 2024 included a change to the Windows Server Hosting bundle that removed the .NET Runtime and ASP.NET Core entries from Add/Remove Programs (ARP). All the standalone bundles (EXE installers) for .NET chain one or more MSI. The individual MSI entries are never shown in ARP and only the bundle entries appear. The Hosting bundle was an exception. Since it chained multiple runtimes, users would see multiple entries in ARP, depending on which runtimes and platforms they selected. Removing the Hosting bundle may leave behind some of the nested runtimes. This could lead to functional breaks when mixed with Visual Studio and Microsoft Update.

The Hosting bundle was updated to directly chain all the required runtime MSIs. This ensures that all the .NET bundles are now consistent and have proper MSI reference counts while addressing the functional issues that were reported. The result of this change is that the individual runtime entries no longer appear in ARP when the Hosting bundle is installed.

**Important** This change does not impact the actual runtime installation. The hosting bundle will continue to install the runtimes under Program Files.