The use of .exe.config file in Windows Slave Installer Module has prevented WinSW from running on machines without .NET FX 4+ installed since 2013. No one has reported that this is a problem in the past years. Instead, there are only issues regarding using .NET FX 2.0 executables on newer platforms.

https://github.com/jenkinsci/windows-slave-installer-module/blob/windows-slave-installer-1.12/src/main/resources/org/jenkinsci/modules/windows_slave_installer/jenkins-slave.exe.config

https://github.com/winsw/winsw/issues/399

JENKINS-60005

JENKINS-31564

JENKINS-21484

Therefore, I propose the following actions:

• Safely switch to the .NET FX 4.0 executable in Windows Slave Installer Module.
• Re-investigate the need to use .NET FX 2.0 executables in Jenkins master and slaves.