How to know whether I'm running from the GAC or not?

Question

Given a class library DLL that can be installed on the GAC (production) or not (development), I need to know whether the executing assembly is running from the GAC or not. How can I know this?

Answer 1

Did you try checking the Assembly.GlobalAssemblyCache property?

bool loadedFromGac = this.GetType().Assembly.GlobalAssemblyCache;

...or:

bool loadedFromGac = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GlobalAssemblyCache;

Answer 2

Use the AssembyInfo class to find out the loaded assemblies for your app. The returned Assembly objects have a property called GlobalAssemblyCache which indicates what you need.

MSDN Docs for Assembly