Drag and Drop DLL to assembly folder

Question

I dont have gacutil on the computer I have to install this assembly so can it be done instead of using gacutil?

If yes, whats the difference?

Its a .net 2.0 assembly

Answer 1

You can drag and drop assemblies onto the \Windows\Assembly folder in Explorer, and the assemblies will be deployed there automatically. There is no difference between the result of this method and using gacutil.

To verify before the act, a shell extension must have been installed with the .NET Framework that displays a different view of this folder when you navigate there, so you should actually see assemblies with version data etc. instead of the standard columns (in detail view).

Answer 2

If you dont want to use gacutil then you should create your own utility and use install the assembly by using Publish.GacInstall Method.

public void GacInstall(string AssemblyPath)

Drage and drop dll ... it might not work if gacutil isn't there as a special Windows Explorer plugin calls gacutil to install your assembly into GAC. For details please have a look on GAC - To add an assembly to the GAC, drag and drop works, but copy and paste doesn't? Why?