Can I rearrange dll images in my .NET app's address space to make more contiguous free space available?

Question

This image shows fragmentation in my app's address space. Is there any way to force the (third-party) dll images (purple) together to eliminate (or mitigate) the fragmentation?

This app will run on 32-bit XP; obviously when we eventually move to 64-bit Windows 7, this problem will go away.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Yes you can rebase your .NET assemblies, but the effect is rather limited as the JIT compiled code will be placed on the code heaps and that is not affected by rebasing. Also, from Vista and forward the image loader randomizes loading to prevent certain kind of exploits, so even if you rebase the assemblies will be loaded at random addresses.