cannot add a reference .NET

Question

I have a DLL which I would like to add as a reference to my project, but everytime I try to do it a dialog pops up telling me:

The reference could not be

Answer 1

There are multiple answeres to your question:

1. you may face this problem because the assembly you are trying to add is targeted and compiled for a x86 processor architecture. Just try change the Target Platform from x64 to x86 and even if that doent work, try change it to AnyCPU. AnyCPU Platform target makes your application executable on both types of architecture because it is architecture-free.

2. If the assembly happens to be a DLL, and it cannot be added as a reference, then it is not a COM as well as .NET assembly. It will be a native assembly like others (for example, shell32.dll, user32.dl etc). You have to use them via DllImport attribute, but you must first check the documentation of that dll to get the list of functions implemented in that dll.