Understanding the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) and Managing , Copying Dlls from Global Assembly Cache
Most of you may confuse why there are two GACs available in the machine. C:\WINDOWS\assembly C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\assembly What is GAC GAC is a shared location in your machine that keeps assemblies, Dlls for common sharing purpose. Assume that you are using system.data.dll in your project. so one option is you can place the dll with your project. but assume you are creating another project which is also using the same .net assembly system.data.dll. so it is better to have it in a common place which that can be referred. since it is a common framework dll and used separately from your application logic it is good to place in a shared place for easy of maintenance and update process. What is C:\WINDOWS\assembly Previous CLR s uses this place as its common location for Dlls. previous CRLs includes versions 1.0,1.1,2.0. these CRLs versions are used by before .NET framework 4. .NET Framework 1.0 - CLR v1.0 .NET Framework 1.1 - CLR v1.1 .NET Framework 2.0 ...