Matt Gerrans
Posts: 1153
Nickname: matt
Registered: Feb, 2002
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Re: GAC - Assembly Reference
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Posted: Sep 4, 2003 1:24 PM
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Removing it is easy (and requires the command-line, of course):
1. Open a command shell window (or "Command Prompt").
2. Go to %SystemRoot%\Assembly (eg. "pushd %SystemRoot%\Assembly").
3. Look for the actual location of the dll with the dir command like so "dir MyAssemblyName.dll /s"). You'll find it in some long directory name like "C:\windows\assembly\gac\MyAssemblyName\2.0.468.1596__a53cf5803f4c3827".
4. Now can delete or rename the dll in that directory (using the tab for directory completion will make this task a lot less tedious!).
Note that using explorer in this case won't work, because it doesn't show you folders, but instead a special GAC view.
Finding out who is using it is another matter. You can probably find a reference to it in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserDat a\[your user tag]\Components\[hash number], but that doesn't tell you what app or apps are using it. Depending on the installer (and perhaps the app, or maybe just the .net configuration?), when you run the app that depends upon it, it may pop up that annoying "missing components" update screen and try to download it from somewhere -- if this happens, then you will of course know what app it was.
Anyway, just in case, you may as well move the thing to some temp directory instead, then you can always undo the damage. You could just move or rename the "MyAssemblyName" directory that resides in the GAC directory; then you can easily restore the whole thing to its previous state, if need be.
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