Download .NET 7 Preview 3 (Offline Installers)

Subhan Zafar|August 29, 2022

.NET 7 Preview 3 has been released for the developers to try and test before the stable version is launched. You can download and install .NET 7 Preview 3 on your computer right now using the direct download links given below, and check out the new features and improvements.

This release includes enhancements to the following components of .NET, but is not limited to:

Observability

Startup times
CodeGen
GC regions

Native AOT compilation

Furthermore, new features have also been introduced, which are:

Native AOT

Default GC regions
ASP.NET Core startup time improvements

If you are willing to try out the new features, you can download the runtimes, SDKs, and the ASP .NET Core from the direct download links given below for the following operating systems:

Windows
Linux
MacOS

But before you do, we suggest you read through the new features highlighted below.

.NET 7 Preview 3 has been tested with Visual Studio 17.2 Preview 3, thus Microsoft recommends that you use it with preview channel releases of Visual Studio to avoid compatibility conflicts.

New in .NET 7 Preview 3

Support

Since .NET 7 is the current release of .NET, it will receive free support and patches from Microsoft for the next 18 months.

In terms of operating systems, this release will be compatible with the following architectures on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) version 8:

AMD x64
Intel x64

ARM (aarch64)
IBM Z
LinuxONE (s390x)

Native AOT

Ahead-Of-Time (AOT) is a technology that generates code at application build time, instead of run-time. Native AOT brings full native pre-compilation to .NET desktop client and server scenarios. Native AOT is not replacing these existing technologies, rather it’s offering a new set of capabilities that unlocks new form factors.

Native AOT is similar to .NET’s existing AOT technologies, but it produces only native artifacts. In fact, the Native AOT runtime does not know how to read the .NET assembly file formats – everything is platform-native.

Performance Improvements

Performance continues to be a major focus for .NET 7. Microsoft reimplemented the precode and call counting stubs (tiered compilation helper stubs) to significantly reduce the number of post-creation modifications of executable code in the runtime. This resulted in 10-15% startup time improvements.

This change also resulted in steady-state performance improvements (up to 8%) in some microbenchmarks and some ASPNet Benchmarks even without Write-Xor-Execute enabled.

Download .NET 7 Preview 3

Use the direct download links below to download the .NET 7 Preview 3 Runtime, SDKs, and ASP.NET Core matching your operating system and architecture:

More download and install options here.

Install .NET 7 Preview 3

You can begin by downloading .NET 7 Preview 3 for your architecture from the links above and then execute it to begin the installation process.

Run the installation package by double-clicking it (in the case of macOS and Windows), and then clicking Install on the installation wizard.

Begin installation
The installation will now begin. It does not take much time nor does it require a restart. Click Close once it has been installed successfully.

Close wizard

You have now installed .NET 7 Preview 3. You may check which .NET version is running by typing in the following command in Command Prompt:

wmic product get description | findstr /C:.NET

Final Thoughts

As the name of this release indicates, it is still in the development phase. This is why we do not recommend that you install it in a production environment.

Moreover, Microsoft has suggested you use .NET 7 Preview 3 with preview versions of Visual Studio, which is also not recommended in live environments. Thus, it would be better to install and test out .NET 7 Preview 3 in a test environment or a Virtual Machine (VM).

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Tags: .NET 7, .NET Preview

Subhan Zafar

Subhan Zafar is an established IT professional with interests in Windows and Server infrastructure testing and research, and is currently working with Itechtics as a research consultant. He has studied Electrical Engineering and is also certified by Huawei (HCNA & HCNP Routing and Switching).

See all posts from Subhan Zafar

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