Unable to uninstall an Assembly from GAC?

.net assemblies gac gacutil
Amitabh picture Amitabh · Mar 15, 2010 · Viewed 21k times · Source

I am unable to uninstall an Assembly (log4net.dll) from GAC. It is giving following error.

"Assembly is required by one or more applications".

However if I search the Assembly using ProcessExplorer nothing comes up? How can I remove this Assembly from GAC?

Answer

Pieter Germishuys picture Pieter Germishuys · Mar 15, 2010

Have you considered reading this KB article and trying it out?

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

To work around this problem, examine the list of values for the following subkeys in Registry Editor:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Assemblies\Global HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Installer\Assemblies\Global

If the value for the entry is a Windows Installer descriptor, delete the entry. For example, the value might be a cryptic REG_MULTI_SZ entry that resembles the following: =ysgSC6wx9uiD1dqmmjW>m$!GP^D'A@?z}gn3}lta

Note You must delete the entry. Do not just clear the value of the entry.

Related questions

Gacutil.exe successfully adds assembly, but assembly not viewable in explorer. Why?

I'm running GacUtil.exe from within Visual Studio Command Prompt 2010 to register a dll (CatalogPromotion.dll) to the GAC. After running the utility, it says Assembly Successfully added to the cache, and running gacutil /l CatalogPromotionDll shows that the GAC …

Read More
How can I list all registered assemblies in GAC?

How can I list all the assemblies that are in the GAC? Do I need a tool that makes it easy to view them?

Read More
How to prevent a .NET application from loading/referencing an assembly from the GAC?

Can I configure a .NET application in a way (settings in Visual Studio) that it references a "local" assembly (not in GAC) instead of an assembly within the GAC, although both assemblies have the same name and the same version?

Read More