The  .NET Framework is a software framework that can be 
installed on computers running  operating systems. It 
includes a large library of coded solutions to common 
programming problems and a virtual machine that manages the 
execution of programs written specifically for the 
framework. The .NET Framework is a key That offering and is 
intended to be used by most new applications created for 
the Windows platform.

The framework's Base Class Library provides a large range 
of features including user interface, data and data access, 
database connectivity, cryptography, web application 
development, numeric algorithms, and network 
communications. The class library is used by programmers, 
who combine it with their own code to produce applications.

Programs written for the .NET Framework execute in a 
software environment that manages the program's runtime 
requirements. Also part of the .NET Framework, this runtime 
environment is known as the Common Language Runtime (CLR). 
The CLR provides the appearance of an application virtual 
machine so that programmers need not consider the 
capabilities of the specific CPU that will execute the 
program. The CLR also provides other important services 
such as security, memory management, and exception 
handling. The class library and the CLR together constitute 
the .NET Framework.