[c#] How to determine if .NET Core is installed

I know that for older versions of .NET, you can determine if a given version is installed by following

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/318785  

Is there an official method of determining if .NET Core is installed?

(And I don't mean the SDK, I want to check a server without the SDK, to determine if it has DotNetCore.1.0.0-WindowsHosting.exe installed on it)

I can see

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NET Cross-Platform Runtime Environment\.NET Framework 4.6\Win\v1-rc1 

with Version# of 1.0.11123.0 on my windows 7 machine, but I don't see the same stuff on my Windows 10 machine.

One of the dummies ways to determine if .NET Core is installed on Windows is:

• Press Windows + R
• Type cmd
• On the command prompt, type dotnet --version

If the .NET Core is installed, we should not get any error in the above steps.

Run this command

dotnet --list-sdks

Alternatively you can just look inside

C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk

I work primarily with Windows development machines and servers.

I just wanted to point out (at least for NET.Core 2.0 and above) the only thing needed is to execute dotnet --info in a command prompt to get information about the latest version installed. If .NET Core is installed you will get some response.

On my development machine (Windows 10) the result is as follows. SDK is 2.1.2 and runtime is 2.0.3.

.NET Command Line Tools (2.1.2)

Product Information:
 Version:            2.1.2
 Commit SHA-1 hash:  5695315371

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.15063
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\2.1.2\

Microsoft .NET Core Shared Framework Host

  Version  : 2.0.3
  Build    : a9190d4a75f4a982ae4b4fa8d1a24526566c69df

On one of my servers running Windows Server 2016 with Windows Server Hosting pack (no SDK) result is as follows. No SDK, runtime is 2.0.3.

Microsoft .NET Core Shared Framework Host

Version  : 2.0.3
Build    : a9190d4a75f4a982ae4b4fa8d1a24526566c69df

Cheers !

(1) If you are on the Window system.

Open the command prompt.

 dotnet --version

(2) Run the below command If you are on Linux system.

dotnet --version

dotnet --info

You can see which versions of the .NET Core SDK are currently installed with a terminal. Open a terminal and run the following command.

dotnet --list-sdks

Using Powershell:

Runtimes:

(dir (Get-Command dotnet).Path.Replace('dotnet.exe', 'shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App')).Name

SDKs:

(dir (Get-Command dotnet).Path.Replace('dotnet.exe', 'sdk')).Name

It's possible that .NET Core is installed but not added to the PATH variable for your operating system or user profile. Running the dotnet commands may not work. As an alternative, you can check that the .NET Core install folders exist.

It's installed to a standard folder if you didn't change it during the instillation

• dotnet executable C:\program files\dotnet\dotnet.exe

• .NET SDK C:\program files\dotnet\sdk\{version}\

• .NET Runtime C:\program files\dotnet\shared\{runtime-type}\{version}\

For more details check How to check that .NET Core is already installed page at .NET documentation

The following commands are available with .NET Core SDK 2.1 (v2.1.300):

To list all installed .NET Core SDKs use: dotnet --list-sdks

To list all installed .NET Core runtimes use dotnet --list-runtimes

(tested on Windows as of writing, 03 Jun 2018, and again on 23 Aug 2018)

Update as of 24 Oct 2018: Better option is probably now dotnet --info in a terminal or PowerShell window as already mentioned in other answers.

Look in C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App to see which versions of the runtime have directories there. Source.

A lot of the answers here confuse the SDK with the Runtime, which are different.

On windows, You only need to open the command prompt and type:

dotnet --version

If the .net core framework installed you will get current installed version

see screenshot:

It doesn't need a installation process.

I have pinned "VSCore" on my taskbar (win10), so open it, and open a task manager choose "Visual Studio Core" process expand left arrow and over any of them child process right button over it and click in "Open File Location" menu.

If you don't remember where is installed search "Code.exe" file in all your hard drives.

dotnet --info

OR

dotnet --version

write the above command(s) on your CMD or Terminal. Then it will show something like bellow

Or

After all the other answers, this might prove useful.

Open your application in Visual Studio. In Solutions Explorer, right click your project. Click Properties. Click Application. Under "Target Framework" click the dropdown button and there you are, all of the installed frameworks.

BTW - you may now choose which framework you want.

You can check if dotnet.exe is available:

where dotnet

You can then check the version:

dotnet --version

UPDATE: There is now a better way of doing this, which is well explained in many other answers:

dotnet --info

The correct answer for runtime-only environments without the SDK, such as a server with the Windows Hosting package installed, is to run PowerShell with the following command:

dotnet --info

Per the official documentation:

• The --version option "Prints out the version of the .NET Core SDK in use." and therefore doesn't work if the SDK is not installed. Whereas...
• The --info option "Prints out detailed information about the CLI tooling and the environment, such as the current operating system, commit SHA for the version, and other information."

Here's another official article explaining how .NET Core versioning works. :)