Version 11.0.0.0 of Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.10.0 assembly?

Question

_{Thursday, March 1, 2012 9:30 PM}

I'm curious why there is a new version of Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.10.0.dll in Visual Studio 11 Beta. I thought that the versioning strategy for these assemblies was to add a whole new assembly for new features.

Because there is now a 11.0.0.0 version of this assembly, the following scenario is broken.

1. Create a new project on VS11 and add a reference like the following.
   <Reference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.10.0" />
2. Build (compiler will bind to 11.0.0.0 because it is the latest version)
3. Try to run on a box with only VS10.

You'll get an error like the following.

Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.10.0, Version=11.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

The workaround is to update your reference to look like the following.

<Reference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.10.0, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

Should this new 11.0.0.0 version of the assembly even exist, or is it a bug and the version should still be 10.0.0.0 in VS11?

Brice Lambson

All replies (3)

_{Monday, March 5, 2012 11:49 AM ✅Answered}

Hello Brice,

As far as I know that the 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.10.0, Version=11.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' comes from the .NET Framework 4.5. However, if you would like to work with .NET Framework 4.5, you need to install VS11. So I am afraid you can't use that assembly in VS2010.

Thanks.

Vicky Song [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

_{Friday, March 2, 2012 9:00 AM}

Hello Brice,

I am sorry that I can't reproduce the same issue as you. I can add the Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.10.0.dll successfully and I can build my project without any errors. And as far as I know that that assembly is in the path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VSSDK\VisualStudioIntegration\Common\Assemblies\v4.0\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.10.0.dll. If you add that assembly directly by browsing to that folder, will you still get that error message?

Thanks. 

Vicky Song [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

_{Friday, March 2, 2012 5:31 PM}

I can add the reference and build just fine. The error occurs when I try to run my extension on a machine that only has Visual Studio 2010.

Uppon further investigation though, the behavior seems consistent with the last release. I'll research more on how to build extensions that are not bound to a specific version of Visual Studio.

Brice Lambson