Is it possible to run a .NET 4.5 app on XP?

I hesitate to post this answer, it is actually technically possible but it doesn't work that well in practice. The version numbers of the CLR and the core framework assemblies were not changed in 4.5. You still target v4.0.30319 of the CLR and the framework assembly version numbers are still 4.0.0.0. The only thing that's distinctive about the assembly manifest when you look at it with a disassembler like ildasm.exe is the presence of a [TargetFramework] attribute that says that 4.5 is needed, that would have to be altered. Not actually that easy, it is emitted by the compiler.

The biggest difference is not that visible, Microsoft made a long-overdue change in the executable header of the assemblies. Which specifies what version of Windows the executable is compatible with. XP belongs to a previous generation of Windows, started with Windows 2000. Their major version number is 5. Vista was the start of the current generation, major version number 6.

.NET compilers have always specified the minimum version number to be 4.00, the version of Windows NT and Windows 9x. You can see this by running dumpbin.exe /headers on the assembly. Sample output looks like this:

OPTIONAL HEADER VALUES
             10B magic # (PE32)
            ...
            4.00 operating system version
            0.00 image version
            4.00 subsystem version              // <=== here!!
               0 Win32 version
            ...

What's new in .NET 4.5 is that the compilers change that subsystem version to 6.00. A change that was over-due in large part because Windows pays attention to that number, beyond just checking if it is small enough. It also turns on appcompat features since it assumes that the program was written to work on old versions of Windows. These features cause trouble, particularly the way Windows lies about the size of a window in Aero is troublesome. It stops lying about the fat borders of an Aero window when it can see that the program was designed to run on a Windows version that has Aero.

You can alter that version number and set it back to 4.00 by running Editbin.exe on your assemblies with the /subsystem option. This answer shows a sample postbuild event.

That's however about where the good news ends, a significant problem is that .NET 4.5 isn't very compatible with .NET 4.0. By far the biggest hang-up is that classes were moved from one assembly to another. Most notably, that happened for the [Extension] attribute. Previously in System.Core.dll, it got moved to Mscorlib.dll in .NET 4.5. That's a kaboom on XP if you declare your own extension methods, your program says to look in Mscorlib for the attribute, enabled by a [TypeForwardedTo] attribute in the .NET 4.5 version of the System.Core reference assembly. But it isn't there when you run your program on .NET 4.0

And of course there's nothing that helps you stop using classes and methods that are only available on .NET 4.5. When you do, your program will fail with a TypeLoadException or MissingMethodException when run on 4.0

Just target 4.0 and all of these problems disappear. Or break that logjam and stop supporting XP, a business decision that programmers cannot often make but can certainly encourage by pointing out the hassles that it is causing. There is of course a non-zero cost to having to support ancient operating systems, just the testing effort is substantial. A cost that isn't often recognized by management, Windows compatibility is legendary, unless it is pointed out to them. Forward that cost to the client and they tend to make the right decision a lot quicker :) But we can't help you with that.

Sadly, no, you can't run 4.5 programs on XP.

And the relevant post from that Connect page:

Posted by Microsoft on 23/03/2012 at 10:39
Thanks for the report. This behavior is by design in .NET Framework 4.5 Beta. The minimum supported operating systems are Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. Windows XP is not a supported operating system for the Beta release.

The Mono project dropped Windows XP support and "forgot" to mention it. Although they still claim Windows XP SP2 is the minimum supported version, it is actually Windows Vista.

The last version of Mono to support Windows XP was 3.2.3.