Just try and find this anywhere on Google!!! What a mess.
Anyway, I’ve found the correct download. btw, dotnet35.exe is NOT the correct download. You can install it, but then when you do a Windows Update, yet another .Net 3.5 SP 1 update will be there, just as big.
The correct full install can be found in the “Microsoft Update Catalog“. Do a search for 951847 and all the 3.5 SP1 downloads will show up. It’s a bit confusing because there appear to be two identical XP x86 installs. I think they’re the same.
When you download it, you get a folder with the following files:
The largest is the full install. The others are merely updates if you already have 2.0 or 3.5 installed. More confusion here with the filename including “IA64_AMD64″ which makes it look like a 64-bit install. But the file names begin with “X86″ so they’re not for x64.
Here’s a direct link to the catalog page:
http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/search.aspx?q=951847
Update: This update doesn’t seem to work either. I still get the .net 3.5 SP1 220+MB patch required w/Windows Update after installing this one. I have no idea how to properly install this patch without going through WU. 
Posted by practicallyit 
Posted by practicallyit 