.NET Framework 4.6.1 has been release about a month ago and it has a lot of improvements and fixes for previous framework version. I will explain about new features, fixes, enhancements, supported operating system and supported Visual studio versions.
The .NET Framework 4.6.1 builds on the .NET Framework 4.6 and it added a lot of new features and also fixes of 4.6. If you are using visual Studio 2015 then to use Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1 you have to just update to Visual Studio 2015 SP1. If you do not want to upgrade your visual studio 2015 to SP1 or you are using Visual Studio 2012 or Visual Studio 2013 then you can Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1 Developer Pack.
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1 New Features
Cryptography
Support for X509 certificates containing ECDSA. RSACng support for X509 was added in .NET framework 4.6 and support for ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm) X509 certificates added in .NET Framework 4.6.1
ECDSA offers better performance and is a more secure cryptography algorithm than RSA, providing an excellent choice where Transport Layer Security (TLS) performance and scalability is a concern. The .NET Framework implementation wraps calls into existing Windows functionality.
ADO.NET
Always Encrypted support for hardware protected keys, Improve MultiSubnetFailover connection behavior for AlwaysOn
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
Improved performance
The delay in firing touch events has been fixed in the .NET Framework 4.6.1. In addition, typing in a RichTextBox control no longer ties up the render thread during fast input.
Spell checking improvements
The spell checker in WPF has been updated on Windows 8.1 and later versions to leverage operating system support for spell-checking additional languages.
Profiling
Better support for accessing PDBs in the ICorProfilerInfo7 interface, Better instrumentation with the ICorProfiler interface.
NGen
Native Image Generator (NGEN) PDBs
With Ngen PDBs, NGen can create a PDB that contains the IL-to-native mapping without a dependency on the IL PDB. In our cross-machine event tracing scenario, all that is needed is to copy the native image PDB that is generated by Machine A to Machine B and to use Debug Interface Access APIs to read the IL PDB's source-to-IL mapping and the native image PDB's IL-to-native mapping. Combining both mappings provides a source-to-native mapping. Since the native image PDB is much smaller than all the modules and native images, the process of copying from Machine A to Machine B is much faster.
Supported Operating Systems for Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1:
Windows 7 SP1 (x86 and x64), Windows 8 (x86 and x64), Windows 8.1 (x86 and x64), Windows 10,
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (x64), Windows Server 2012 (x64), Windows Server 2012 R2 (x64)
Supported Versions of Visual Studio
Visual Studio 2012, Visual Studio 2013 & Visual Studio 2015.
Downloads
- Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1 - Web Installer here.
- Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1 - Developer Pack here.
- Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1 - Offline Installer here.
- Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1 Language Pack - Offline Installer here.