How to find which Visual Studio Dependency is using a particular DLL?

I have a VS 2022 solution with approximately 100 projects in it. One particular project references several other projects, and also pulls in a dozen nuget packages.

When I build that project, it includes Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.dll in the bin folder. My project doesn't use it.

Is there a fast way to find out which dependency is including it in the bin? Thanks

Solution

Your project doesn't use it directly, but maybe a NuGet package uses it. Maybe you can try the NDepend Project Dependency Diagram feature that also shows dependencies to the referenced assemblies. To do so:

Download NDepend trial full featured
Unzip and start VisualNDepend.exe
on the Start Page click Analyze .NET assemblies in folder
point the dialog to the folder that contains all your assemblies
eventually check Recursive child folder
Start analyze
Go to the NDepend Dependency Graph panel > Filers > uncheck Exclude Third-Party
Use the Search graph feature and type Microsoft.ApplicationInsights to see who is using it

You can also right click the assembly > Show on Dependency Grap to see direct callers