Download .NET 7 Preview 7 (Offline Installers)

Subhan Zafar|August 29, 2022

.NET 7 Preview 7 has been released for the developers to test out before the actual, stable .NET 7 is released. But even before that, Microsoft will publish the .NET Release Candidates, which they intimated will be the next update for .NET 7.

With each iteration, new features, support, and improvements are added so that when the stable version comes out, the developers already know what to expect.

With Preview 7, Microsoft has made improvements to the following areas:

System.LINQ
Unix file permissions
Low-level structs

P/Invoke source generation
Code generation
Websockets

You can download and install .NET 7 Preview 7 on your compatible devices using the direct download links shared below. .NET 7 can be installed on the following platforms:

Windows
Linux

MacOS

.NET 7 Preview 7 has been tested with Visual Studio 17.4 Preview 1, thus Microsoft recommends that you use it with preview channel releases of Visual Studio only to avoid compatibility conflicts.

Let us now dig into the new improvements this release has to offer before you download and test it out.

New in .NET 7 Preview 7

The following improvements have been made in .NET 7 Preview 7:

System.Linq now has the methods Order and OrderDescending, which are there to order an IEnumerable according to T.
Support for Unix file modes has been added by introducing a new enum with APIs File.GetUnixFileMode and File.SetUnixFileMode that get and set the file mode on either a path or a handle (file descriptors). As well as a new property on FileInfo and DirectoryInfo named UnixFileMode.

The .NET 7 runtimes now have full support for ref fields within ByRefLike types (that is, ref struct).
The LibraryImport source generator is now available in a supported manner to all users.
Several improvements have been made to Loop Optimizations.

The list of changes and improvements does not end here. To read about what other changes have been made to .NET, read this Microsoft post.

Download .NET 7 Preview 6

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

More download and install options here.

Install .NET 7 Preview 7

You can begin by downloading .NET 7 Preview 7 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 installation wizard

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

wmic product get description | findstr /C:.NET

Closing Words

Since this is a preview release, we do not recommend that you install it in a production environment. Rather, we suggest you use it in test environments only and check out the new improvements and compatibility with your existing and new applications. Alternatively, you can also wait for the next update and install the .NET 7 Release Candidate (RC) 1.

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Tags: .NET 7, Software Updates

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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