What are Side-by-side Assemblies?
.net, assemblies, side-by-side
Solution
A starting point for understanding side-by-side assemblies and what they're for would probably be the "Isolated Applications and Side-by-Side Assemblies" reference on MSDN.
Essentially, side-by-side assemblies are a way to ensure that a given application will always use a specific version of a DLL, particularly Windows system DLLs (such as the Common Controls), no matter the Service Packs, Updates or new applications installed after it.
Other links of interest:
- MSDN: Side-by-side assemblies (windows)
- Wikipedia: Side-by-side Assembly
Problem
I came across Side-by-side Assemblies for the first time today while trying to install a Debug install set to a test machine. I managed it in the end, but was left with several questions: - Whare are Side-by-side assemblies? - How does Windows deal with these assemblies differently from other assemblies - How do applications depending on Side-by-side assemblies deal with these differently from normal assemblies - Under what situations might someone want to create a Side-by-side assembly?