I came across a server today that had some horrible problem with the .NET frameworks on it, and none of the updates or service packs from Windows update would install. I couldn’t remove any of the .NET applications using either the App/Remove Programs GUI, or via the correct msiexec install strings. I’m not sure how the server came to be like this, but it was a problem I had to sort out and basically I was a little stumped, until I came across Aaron Stebner’s MSDN blog. He had a post about completely removing the .NET applications in their entirety.
The application works on all versions of .NET and you can find it on his blog here
Once you’ve run the cleanup tool, reboot and then you can just install the applications from Windows Update again. The application worked very well and once it was finished, all was well in the .NET world.