Windows 7 users won't need to worry about this. However, Windows XP users might need to read below.

Any users attempting to install GCD 5.X on a machine with Windows XP Pro, need to ensure that before ArcGIS is installed, DotNet Version 3.5 or later is installed (see here to install DotNet 4.0).  If .Net Framework Version 3.5 or later is not installed first, ArcGIS will not install the .Net components necessary to run the GCD 5.X tools. See here for more information. Windows 7 users do not need to worry about this because .Net comes installed already.

If you are unsure whether or not you have .NET installed, see this video:


If you know you have .NET installed, but are not sure if ArcGIS was installed after or before this, you may need to follow these instructions.

What is DotNet anyway?

Similar to how many applications and software coded in Java, need you to have Java installed on your machine, may programs coded using Microsoft's Visual Basic or C# languages need to have .NET installed to run. This is because these software packages use libraries with core functionality from .NET .  All .NET  is

• Common Language Runtime – provides an abstraction layer over the operating system
• Base Class Libraries – pre-built code for common low-level programming tasks
• Development frameworks and technologies – reusable, customizable solutions for larger programming tasks

For more information on .NET see http://www.microsoft.com/net/.