This is referred to as XCopy deployment, and we recommend this approach for most of your
applications.
Shared Assemblies and the Global Assembly Cache
A shared assembly contains the same elements as a private assembly with the difference that
a single shared assembly can be used by other applications on that machine. For example,
the Hello World! application needs an external assembly called System, which is contained in
System.dll. It wouldn??™t make sense to have this file in every application directory that uses it,
so shared assemblies are located in a single place. Shared assemblies are deployed to the
global assembly cache (GAC).
The GAC, typically located in the \windows\assembly subdirectory, is a common area
where .NET assemblies designed to be shared by multiple applications are stored. Assemblies
installed in the GAC must be strongly named, and sharing assemblies allows multiple versions
of the same assembly to be used. The GAC Explorer plug-in presents the GAC directory structure
in your browser. If you navigate to the same directory by using a command prompt, you??™ll
CHAPTER 5 n VB 2008 AND THE CLR 92
see the encoded directory names that the GAC uses to store the assemblies. Be sure not to
tamper with this directory structure.
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