Use PowerShell to view contents of the Global Assembly Cache (GAC)

Question

Is there a way to use PowerShell to view the contents of the GAC?

Answer 1

You can do it just from a command prompt:

cd C:\Windows\assembly
dir

The GAC has a specific directory structure, and you should not go moving or deleting things in there using the command prompt - rather use windows explorer (gui) or gacutil (cli)

Answer 2

To list entries in the GAC;

gacutil -l

In powershell you could parse the text output of the above. I don't know of a managed interface to inspect the GAC.

Answer 3

Another option is that the PowerShell Community Extensions installs a GAC provider, so you can do this:

dir gac:

If you are on PowerShell V2, be sure to grab the 1.2 Beta.

Answer 4

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Muse VSExtansions