Visual Studio 2010 is messing with my references

Question

I have a dll in the GAC. I browse to this same dll in a different place then referenced in the GAC using the file dialog of add reference.

Visual studio repoints it to the gac location.

Boom my build blows up on the build server that doesn't have this dll in the gac or at that location.

What is the best way to fix this?

Answer 1

Assuming the directory structure on the build machine is the same as on your local machine, you could add hint path to the project file. Right click on the project and select 'Unload Project', then right click again and select Edit. After adding the hint path, right click on the project again and select 'Reload Project'.

<Reference Include="YourReference, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=xxxxxxx, processorArchitecture=x86">
  <HintPath>..\..\bin\YourReference.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>