The Microsoft .NET Framework installs assemblies into two different locations, and this practice is recommended to developers wishing to deploy assemblies both for runtime and design-time use. <\/p>\n
Runtime assemblies are those assemblies needed for an application to execute. It is recommended that you add runtime assemblies to the Global Assembly Cache<\/a> (GAC). If you’re deploying your assemblies in a Windows Installer package, you would add the file normally but then add records into the MsiAssembly<\/a> and MsiAsemblyName<\/a> tables. If you plan on doing in-place updates<\/a> – though assembly versioning<\/a> is recommended – be sure to add the FileVersion attribute to the MsiAssemblyName table. <\/p>\n Design-time assemblies are those assemblies you would compile and link against when building your own managed assemblies. In Visual Studio, these are assemblies you would see when you right-click on a project, for example, and click “Add References…”. These assemblies are installed as any other normal files would be installed using Windows Installer, with the addition of a registry key under SOFTWAREMicrosoft.NETFrameworkAssemblyFolders – either under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE for all users, or HKEY_CURRENT_USER for the current user. <\/p>\n