Anthony Trudeau

Making your assemblies visible to Visual Studio

So, you created your super cool library and you want to be able to use it within your application.  You maybe even installed it in the GAC.  But, it doesn't show up in the Add Reference dialog unless you browse to it.  What are you to do?

There are two approaches:

1. Copy the assemblies to the C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727 folder (version may vary) or the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio8\Common7\IDE folder.
2. Add a special assembly folder key to the Registry

Personally, I believe the latter option is the best option and seems to be the method that third party vendors use.  This method will cause Visual Studio to search the folder you specify in addition to the default folders.  Here's what you need to do:

1. Browse to the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\.NETFramework\AssemblyFolders key
2. Add a new key with whatever name you want (keep in mind that you'll need a key for separate folders)
3. Set the default value of the key to the folder where the assemblies are installed

Print | posted on Thursday, June 21, 2007 11:43 AM | Filed Under [ .NET ]