GAC Assembly Missing in Add Reference dialog

Question

I have an Interop assembly lying in GAC; Windows Explorer clearly shows it listed in the C:\\WINDOWS\\assembly folder. Yet, when I try to add a reference to it in f

Answer 1

Add one of the following registry keys, where is the directory to search, and MyAssemblies is the category of your assemblies. Note HKCU is for the current user and HKLM is for everyone on the same computer.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\<version>\AssemblyFoldersEx\MyAssemblies]@="<AssemblyLocation>"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\<version>\AssemblyFoldersEx\MyAssemblies]@="<AssemblyLocation>"

Answer 2

Use this command under Visual studio command prompt

regsvr32 /u shfusion.dll

Answer 3

I've created a tool that will help you to achieve your goal. Muse VSReferences will allow you to add a Global Assembly Cache reference to the project from Add GAC Reference menu item.

Answer 4

"C:\WINDOWS\assembly" is a special folder which in Windows Explorer will list the assemblies (and the assembly info) within the various sub-folders.

For your case, you might need to point it to the physical path which is "C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL.....dll" within VS.NET.

Answer 5

Alternatively, I edited the Project file and added the reference manually.

1. Install the assembly in GAC. gacutil /i "Foo.dll"
2. Find the strong name of the assembly. gacutil /l will give you the list from which you can pick.
3. In the consuming project file add the following line (from the previous step)
4. <Reference Include="Foo, Version=x.x, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=xxx, processorArchitecture=MSIL" />
5. And it works. :)

Answer 6

You can also map the GAC folder to a virtual drive, and then you can add GAC reference through browse tab.

Manual by MZ-Tools