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I'm trying to package a set of compiled .NET DLLs. These comprise x86. x64 and AnyCPU builds of the same library (same DLL name, different version numbers & target platforms).

I am using Advanced Installer, however - assuming an installer agnostic environment, how can I make sure my DLLs show up in the Visual Studio Add-References dialog after an end-user installs my MSI?

Targetting VS2010 and VS2012. Any help gratefully received

Bogdan Mitrache
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Dr. Andrew Burnett-Thompson
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  • possible duplicate of [Assembly installed into the GAC not showing up in Visual Studio](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1987691/assembly-installed-into-the-gac-not-showing-up-in-visual-studio) – Sheng Jiang 蒋晟 Apr 09 '13 at 22:49
  • I tried the answer from there but it didn't work: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1987691/assembly-installed-into-the-gac-not-showing-up-in-visual-studio – Dr. Andrew Burnett-Thompson Apr 10 '13 at 08:13

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I have figured out that to make an assembly visible to the Reference Manager in VS2012, I need to add this Registry Key

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319\AssemblyFoldersEx\MyAsm
Value: <Directory on target PC of .NET4.0 assembly>

And for .NET4.5, I need this key

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.5.50709\AssemblyFoldersEx\MyAsm
Value: <Directory on target PC of .NET4.5 assembly>

However this results in another problem of both DLLs showing up when using .NET4.5 (described here)

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Dr. Andrew Burnett-Thompson
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    To add the registry is easy with Advanced Installer, you can go to Registry page and in the "Data" field for your new values add a "Folder..." references using the corespondent button. Don't forget to tick the "64-bit component" flag for the components associated with the registry values, so they don't get redirected on 64-bit machines to Wow6432Node. Unfortunately I don't know a solution for the problem with both DLLs showing up when using .NET 4.5 – Bogdan Mitrache Apr 10 '13 at 13:04
  • Thanks for that, helped me with the Wow6432Node issue I was also facing :) – Dr. Andrew Burnett-Thompson Apr 10 '13 at 13:32