Visual Studio Can't Target .NET Framework 4.8

This Visual Studio thread had all the answers I was looking for. The .NET Framework 4.8 Developer Pack includes both the SDK and Targeting Pack. After installing this and restarting Visual Studio, I can now see .NET Framework 4.8 as a targeting option for Visual Studio projects. You should not need to do any Visual Studio Installer steps.

Also mentioned in the above thread, .NET Framework 4.8 will be included in the Visual Studio installation process as of 16.3 (currently listed under 16.3 Preview 2).


Just had a similar issue with Visual Studio 2019 Community Edition: only .Net Core versions were shown.

I edited the .csproj file manually. I changed the line with the TargetFramework property to

<TargetFramework>net48</TargetFramework>

Oddly, now all other versions show up also.


Just thought I'll post my issues as I stumbled across this too with VS2019 Winforms project, and couldn't target anything apart from .Net 5 and Core 3.1. Turns out there're 2 types of Winforms, Winforms App and Winforms App (.Net Framework). The former won't be able to target the other .net framework. The latter is able to. Duh! Simple stuffs that aren't obvious.