Is it safe to remove .NET 5 runtime if .NET 6 runtime is installed?

Question

From a purely user perspective, I am not developing applications on Windows, I merely install and uninstall stuff.

Microsoft Defender tells me that the installed .NET 5 installation is end of service. There is also a .NET 6 runtime installed.

So, is it safe to remove the .NET 5 runtime? Is there any way to tell which applications might be affected by the removal of .NET 5?

Answer 1

You dont need to uninstall .net 5, take your time till you move/upgrade your application for .net 6

Microsoft defender is just warning you that .net 5 won't be getting any update,fixes or any support but still you can use it.

Though it is good idea to move to lates technology due to security reasons.

If you have source code for your application, just goto 'cproj' file and version of .net is mentioned there like below

      <Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
      <PropertyGroup>
        <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
        <TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework> ****HERE****
        <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
        <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
      </PropertyGroup>
      </Project>

After then build your project. You will get warning about depricated methods and all that you can fix it accordingly. Thats all....

If you are using third party application then you need to ask provider for updated version if there is.