.NET 2.0+

Assembly Information

.NET framework assemblies can include a number of assembly attribute values that are shown when viewing the properties of the executable file or DLL. These properties can be set using Visual Studio tools or in the source code.

Viewing Assembly File Properties

Microsoft Windows operating systems allow many properties to be set for files. The available properties vary according to the file type. For .NET assemblies that are compiled to executables or dynamic link libraries (DLL), they include details of the assembly, including the name of the program or library, a description and up to three version numbers. They can also include information about the developer or company that created the software.

To view the properties of an assembly, right-click the file in Windows Explorer and choose "Properties" from the context-sensitive menu that appears. A dialog box similar to that shown below appears.

Changing Assembly Information in Visual Studio

If you use Visual Studio 2005 or later, most of the details can be set using a dialog box. To access the Assembly Information dialog box, open the property pages for the project, select the "Application" tab and click the "Assembly Information..." button.

Each of the available assembly values can be edited using the dialog box controls. However, some of the terminology in Visual Studio differs from that shown in the file properties. The table below shows the mappings between the items in the Assembly Information dialog box and those of the file properties.

Assembly Information	File Properties
Title	Description
Description	Comments
Company	Company
Product	Product Name
Copyright	Copyright
Trademark	Legal Trademarks
Assembly Version	Assembly Version
File Version	File Version