The other day I bought the latest version of Symantec Norton Ghost (v 9.0) and guess what it runs on? .NET. During the installation it asks if you don't have .NET framework installed, one will be installed. So it installed .NET framework (I was installing the Ghost on pc that does not have .NET) very well and all worked well.
I think the fact the Norton is using .NET for a general PC utility proves that .NET is not just for custom database applications.
"The creative process is nothing but a series of crises." Isaac Bashevis Singer
"My experience is that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don't know anything at all." Oscar Wilde
"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too." W.Somerset Maugham