Use PowerShell to view contents of the Global Assembly Cache (GAC)

Question

Is there a way to use PowerShell to view the contents of the GAC?

Answer 1

I had the same question. The question became more prominent with .Net 4.0 and there not being a Windows Explorer shell plugin available to view the contents. GacUtil works, but is not flexible enough and takes a lot to install. The PowerShell Community Extensions option is to limited in it's functionality and contains to many other CmdLets that I don't need. Therefore I've written my own PowerShell module to view and change the GAC. It can be found on http://powershellgac.codeplex.com

This project has moved to GitHub. You can now find it on:

https://github.com/LTruijens/powershell-gac

It can also be found in the PowerShell Gallery:

https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/Gac/1.0.1

# Show the assemblies in the GAC, including the file version
Get-GacAssembly SomeCompany* | Format-Table -View FileVersion