Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (
More info?)
Presumably, acid pro requires it. If so it should have come w/ it and
installed it for you (assuming a CD). If it was a download, they should
have warned you that you needed .NET before you downloaded it. .NET is a
large download. It's best to get the whole .Net Installer (rather than
use Windows Update to get it), reboot, create a restore point and turn off
any anti-virus/anti-spyware/firewall things before running the installer -
it's finicky.
..NET is a "framework", a foundation upon which other applications are
built. It's MS's new baby (a toddler now really), and it will be required
by more and more things as time goes by. It has NOT met up to its
expectations tho.
It's sorta like JAVA, but different (ie, bigger, bloated, less secure, etc
etc etc). Not that there's anything wrong with that...
The rumors of its death are...just hopeful. Maybe w/ the next regime
change...