Yes and no. The .NET Framework has ALWAYS been available via Windows Update. It's not a critical update though, so it's not installed via Automatic Updates. It makes perfect sense that it's not a critical update because it's not critical. There's no point meed to install all five Frameworks if you don't use all five. People have the choice to install all or none. Every Windows user should be visiting Microsoft Update regularly so they should be aware of this, but of course many Windows users simply don't bother with any system maintenance.