The CLR provides the appearance of an application virtual machine, so that programmers need not consider the capabilities of the specific CPU that will execute the program. NET Framework, is known as the Common Language Runtime (CLR). This runtime environment, which is also a part of the. NET Framework execute in a software environment that manages the program's runtime requirements. The functions of the class library are used by programmers who combine them with their own code to produce applications. The pre-coded solutions that form the framework's class library cover a large range of programming needs in areas including: user interface, data access, database connectivity, cryptography, web application development, numeric algorithms, and network communications. NET Framework is a key Microsoft offering, and is intended to be used by most new applications created for the Windows platform. It provides a large body of pre-coded solutions to common program requirements, and manages the execution of programs written specifically for the framework. NET Framework is a software component that can be added to or is included with the Microsoft Windows operating system.