How To Manage .NET Assemblies

An assembly can be compared to that of the executables that are created in other frameworks. However there is a difference when you compare this to the actual executables you have created earlier.

A .Net assembly is actually a source code for the Common Language Runtime which uses the Just-In-Time compiler to compile the source code in the assembly to the native language to execute. The advantage of this type of assembly is that you can just copy it to any location when you need it and there is no need to register it like you did in the early days.

If there are any components that need to be shared by many programs then you can share a component by creating a copy in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC). Before you copy a component in the GAC, you need to give a strong name using the SN.exe tool and then use the GACUTIL tool to copy that component to the GAC.

You can also use the .NET 2.0 configuration tool found in the Control Panel -> Performance and Maintenance -> Administrative Tools to copy an assembly to the Global Assembly Cache.