Why I cannot access the C:\WINDOWS\assembly\GAC Folder?

Question

I find the path of Microsoft.Office>interop.Excel under the Solution/References is

C:\WINDOWS\assembly\GAC\Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel\11.0.0.0__71e9bce111e9429c\Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.dll

However, such a file doesn't exist on my C:\WINDOWS\assembly\GAC at all. Further, there is not GAC folder under C:\WINDOWS\assembly.

Any idea?

Answer 1

If you want to disable the GAC shell extension -

run regedit - navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion create DisableCacheViewer DWORD - set the value to 0x1.

After this open the assembly folder and you should see the sub folders and navigate into them.

But if you want to copy the assemblies from them -I'm not sure why? In you case you want Excel PIA's. All the Office versions also provide PIAs

Here are the PIA's for Office 2007.

Answer 2

It is propably easiest to type to following in Start->Run: %windir%\assembly\gac

Some people use the subst command to map a drive letter to the GAC: SUBST [Drive letter]: “C:\Windows\assembly”

Personally I would get a hold of the Office Primary Interop Assemblies (Here is the PIA for 2010), they should contain the assembly you need

Answer 3

Use the command prompt to navigate there. Windows Explorer has an extension that runs for the assembly folder, hiding some of the details.

Here is a post on how to turn it off. http://geekswithblogs.net/pavelka/archive/2006/05/05/WindowsExplorerAndTheGlobalAssemblyCache.aspx or http://weblogs.asp.net/jkey/archive/2003/02/25/3006.aspx