Getting the PublicKeyToken of .Net assemblies

.net visual-studio visual-studio-2010 public-key
moi_meme picture moi_meme · Jun 15, 2010 · Viewed 155.9k times · Source

What is the simplest way to find the Public-Key-Token of an assembly?

The simplest way I can think of would be a simple right-click, get public key, but this functionality isn't there, maybe there is a Visual Studio Extension for that?

I'm using Visual Studio 2010, if an extension is available.

Answer

digEmAll picture digEmAll · Jun 15, 2010

Open a command prompt and type one of the following lines according to your Visual Studio version and Operating System Architecture :

VS 2008 on 32bit Windows :

"%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\bin\sn.exe" -T <assemblyname>

VS 2008 on 64bit Windows :

"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\bin\sn.exe" -T <assemblyname>

VS 2010 on 32bit Windows : 

"%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\bin\sn.exe" -T <assemblyname>

VS 2010 on 64bit Windows : 

"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\bin\sn.exe" -T <assemblyname>

VS 2012 on 32bit Windows :

"%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools\sn.exe" -T <assemblyname>

VS 2012 on 64bit Windows :

"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools\sn.exe" -T <assemblyname>

VS 2015 on 64bit Windows :

"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v10.0A\bin\NETFX 4.6.1 Tools\sn.exe" -T <assemblyname>

Note that for the versions VS2012+, sn.exe application isn't anymore in bin but in a sub-folder. Also, note that for 64bit you need to specify (x86) folder.

If you prefer to use Visual Studio command prompt, just type :

sn -T <assembly>

where <assemblyname> is a full file path to the assembly you're interested in, surrounded by quotes if it has spaces.

You can add this as an external tool in VS, as shown here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/miah/archive/2008/02/19/visual-studio-tip-get-public-key-token-for-a-stong-named-assembly.aspx

Related questions

Type or namespace name does not exist

I have a WCF Data Service project built with Visual Studio 2010, which was working fine. All of a sudden, it didn't compile anymore. It was giving me messages like: Error 7 The type or namespace name 'Services' does not exist in …

Read More
How do I run Visual Studio as an administrator by default?

I recently discovered that even while logged into my personal laptop as an administrator, Visual Studio does not run in administrator mode and you need to explicitly use Run As Administrator. Is there a way to make it run as …

Read More
Can't change target platform to "any CPU"

I work on an x86 pc and use .NET4.0 (same probelem with 3.5) in VS2010. When I make a new Project (e.g. WinFormsApp), the first thing I want to do is to change the target platform of the project/solution …

Read More