Strong name validation failed for application

Question

I made a c# application that uses C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\WindowsPowerShell\3.0\System.Management.Automation.dll

I also copied the dll to my bin folder. It works fine, but if I copy the bin folder to another machine and run the executable I get this error:

************** Exception Text **************
System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'System.Management.Automation, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. Strong name validation failed. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8013141A)
File name: 'System.Management.Automation, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' ---> System.Security.SecurityException: Strong name validation failed. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8013141A)

Note: I'm not signing the assemblies at all. Also I do not want to disable security by modifying the registry keys. I just want to fix it properly. Any ideas how to fix this problem without globally registering the dll?

Updates: I tried copying the whole visual studio project over to the other machine. It's not working on windows 7 while it is working on windows 8.

Answer 1

You can remove the strong reference to the assembly in your app.confg by changing

System.Management.Automation, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35

to

System.Management.Automation

But I would suggest getting more information about exactly what is wrong, using Fuslogvw (which can be copied onto your destination server, along with a support dll).

This will show you exactly where the application is probing for dll's and what is causing the issue. Maybe you have another dll you need to add to your bin folder, or maybe the GAC is winning out on another dll.