Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 not installing during OSD

I was trying to deploy .NET 4.5 during my OSD task sequence, as another app required it. At first, it seemed like the other app was the issue, as it would take the full 120 minutes of time to run, then wouldn't install. I hit F8, ran CMTrace, then opened the AppEnforce.log file and noticed this error:

Unmatched exit code (16389) is considered an execution failure.

It sure is! I had bundled this as an application, and the program was running "NDP451-KB2858728-x86-x64-AllOS-ENU.exe" /q /norestart. This should work. It did not. In fact, besides the error, it ran this step pretty fast. The .NET 4.5 framework tends to take a long time to install, so this was definitely not right.

Buried deep in this TechNet article is a response that suggested bundling .NET 4.5 as a package instead. So I did, and created a program inside with the same command line (minus the quotes), and it installed properly! The application that required it also installed properly.

Having trouble deploying an app? Try it as a software package instead and see what happens!

EDIT: See comment section for an alternative to this using Application instead of Package.