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c#.netwindows-8.1gacgroup-policy

Installing RSAT for Windows 8.1 does not place expected assemblies in the GAC

I installed the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 8.1 (http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=39296) expecting that this would populate the GAC with the Microsoft.GroupPolicy assemblies.

The tools themselves installed successfully, however the expected assemblies are not in the GAC.

I have repeated the exercise with the Windows 7 tools (http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/confirmation.aspx?id=7887) and those assemblies do appear in the GAC following installation. Windows 7 GAC

Has anyone else experienced the same issue? If so, how did you resolve it?

Solution

  • You are just looking in the wrong location, the screen-shot shows the GAC for the v2 runtime. Stored in c:\windows\assembly. You however downloaded a Win8.1 program, it almost certainly uses .NET 4.5 since that's the version that's pre-installed on Win8.

    Which uses a different GAC, the v4 version is located in c:\windows\microsoft.net\assembly. There is no shell extension for it that flattens the view, you can see the directories in the GAC as-is. Easy enough to navigate, the GAC structure isn't very complicated.

    Of course you'll have to target .NET 4.x in your project to use these assemblies. And keep in mind that it still might favor local deployment instead of the GAC, you'll have to look in the install directory as well. I didn't try it.