The .NET Framework is a development platform that provides tools and technologies to build networked and web applications and services. It includes a Common Language Runtime (CLR) that executes code as a virtual machine and manages memory, and a .NET Framework Class Library (FCL) that contains reusable classes. The CLR provides features like security, performance, and memory management including garbage collection.

1. What is Microsoft .Net Framework
The Microsoft .Net Framework is a platform that provides tools and
technologies you need to build Networked Applications as well as
Distributed Web Services and Web Applications. The .Net Framework
provides the necessary compile time and run-time foundation to build
and run any language that conforms to the Common Language
Specification (CLS).The main two components of .Net Framework
are Common Language Runtime (CLR) and .Net Framework Class
Library (FCL).
The Common Language Runtime (CLR) is the runtime environment of
the .Net Framework , that executes and manages all running code like
a Virtual Machine . The .Net Framework Class Library (FCL) is a huge
collection of language-independent and type-safe reusable classes. The
.Net Framework Class Libraries (FCL) are arranged into a logical
grouping according to their functionality and usability is called
Namespaces.
.Net Framework Architecture

2. The .Net Framework Architecture is the programming model for the
.NET platform. It provides a managed execution environment, simplified
development and deployment and integration with a wide variety of
programming languages. The .NET Framework class library (FCL) is a
comprehensive, object-oriented collection of reusable types that you can
use to develop applications. The common language runtime (CLR) is
the core runtime engine for executing applications in the .NET
Framework. The CLR is fully protected from the outside environment and
highly optimized within, taking advantage of the services that the CLR
provides such as security, performance, deployment facilities,
and memory management , including garbage collection.
Design Features Of .NET Framework
The principal design features of Microsoft .NET Framework are:
 Interoperability
 Portability
 Security
 Language independence
 Type safety
 Memory management
Interoperability

3. Language interoperability is the ability of code to interact with code that
is written using a different programming language. It can help maximize
code reuse and, therefore, improve the efficiency of the development
process. The .NET components can communicate with the existing COM
components without migrating to those components into .NET. That
means, this feature is a great help to reduce the migration cost and time.
PIAs (Primary Interop Assembly) provide the information that
supports interoperability between .NET and COM.
Portability

4. While Microsoft has never implemented the full framework on any
operating system except Microsoft Windows, it has engineered the
framework to be cross-platform , and implementations are available for
other operating systems. Portable class libraries can help you reduce the
time and costs of developing and testing code. The Portable Class
Library project type in Visual Studio environment helps you build cross-
platform apps and libraries for Microsoft platforms quickly and easily.
You can use this project type to write and build portable .NET
Framework assemblies , and then reference those assemblies from apps
that target other platforms such as the .NET Framework, iOS, or Mac.
Microsoft presented the particulars for CLI (which incorporates the center
class libraries, CTS, and CIL), and C++/CLI to both Ecma
International (ECMA) and International Organization for
Standardization (ISO), making them accessible as official models. This

5. makes it feasible for outsiders to make perfect executions of the system
and its dialects on different stages.
Security
.NET Framework has its own security mechanism with two general
features: Code Access Security (CAS), and identity-based security. Code
Access Security (CAS) is based on evidence that is associated with a
specific assembly. Using Code Access Security, you set policies and
permissions on assemblies according to their publisher or where they
were loaded from, for example. The user identity of the hosting process is
irrelevant in the permission granting logic. Compared with Code Access
Security, identity-based security represents a classic approach with
which most developers are confident.
Language independence
The .NET Framework is language independent. It is possible to use .Net
from many programming languages because they have all agreed on some
standards. This means that, as a programmer, you can develop in one of
the many languages that target the .NET Framework, such as C#,
C++/CLI, Eiffel, F#, IronPython, IronRuby, PowerBuilder, Visual Basic,
Visual COBOL, and Windows PowerShell. The .NET Framework

6. presents a Common Type System (CTS) that characterizes every
conceivable data sorts and programming builds bolstered by Common
Language Runtime and how they might communicate with each other
fitting in with CLI determination. Because of this feature, .NET
Framework supports the exchange of types and object instances between
libraries and applications written using any conforming .NET language.
Type safety
Type-Safety is a very important feature of .NET Framework and it is
enforced by the CLR and the Language Compiler - in accordance to the
CTS (Common Type System) directives of the .NET Framework. Type-
safe code cannot perform an operation on an object that is invalid for that
object. This prevents ill-defined casts, wrong method invocations, and
memory size issues when accessing an object. For example, if you have
declared a variable as an integer, it cannot be assigned any value which is
not an integer (by implicit conversion, or explicit conversion).
Memory management
Automatic memory management is one of the services that the Common
Language Runtime provides during Managed Execution. Using
the Garbage Collection (GC) Pattern method to limit or eliminate
memory leaks in your .Net applications and provide a more efficient
developer experience. The Common Language Runtime's garbage
collector handled the allocation and release of memory for an application,

7. which eliminates common problems such as missing to free an object and
causing a memory leak , or attempting to access memory for an object
that has already been released.