%windir%\Microsoft.NET\assembly\
is the new GAC. Does it mean now we have to manage two GACs, one for .NET 2.0-3.5 applications and the other for .NET 4.0 applications?
The question is, why?
.net-4.0gacnet
%windir%\Microsoft.NET\assembly\
is the new GAC. Does it mean now we have to manage two GACs, one for .NET 2.0-3.5 applications and the other for .NET 4.0 applications?
The question is, why?
Best Answer
Yes since there are 2 distinct Global Assembly Cache (GAC), you will have to manage each of them individually.
Source
Why?
It seems to be because there was a CLR change in .NET 4.0 but not in 2.0 to 3.5. The same thing happened with 1.1 to 2.0 CLR. It seems that the GAC has the ability to store different versions of assemblies as long as they are from the same CLR. They do not want to break old applications.
See the following information in MSDN about the GAC changes in 4.0.
As the CLR is updated in future versions you can expect the same thing. If only the language changes then you can use the same GAC.