Visual Studio 2010 error: Type universe cannot resolve assembly

mvvm-lightvisual studio 2010

I've loaded a WPF project initially created in Visual Studio 2008 into Visual Studio 2010. The conversion process goes smoothly, but on certain XAML files the VS2010 designer throws several errors related to project references, including this one:

System.Reflection.Adds.UnresolvedAssemblyException

Type universe cannot resolve assembly: GalaSoft.MvvmLight, Version=3.0.0.31869, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=3e875cdb3903c512.

This assembly reference works just fine in the Expression Blend 4 designer, but not in VS2010.

I can build and run the solution successfully.

My solution targets the .Net Framework 3.5 SP1.

Best Answer

I can't quite tell if you're having the same problem I had or not, but I was getting that type universe error all the time with the Ninject .dll. I solved it by "Unblocking" the zip file before extracting it. I think this only affects Vista and Win 7 dev machines but it's worth a try. I posted a blog entry last week with details on the error and the solution. Scroll down to the "Foiled by a Blockhead" section.

Related Solutions

Visual Studio 2010: Reference Assemblies Targeting Higher Framework Version

Step1: Unload the referencing project targeting .NET 2.0

Step2: Right click the unloaded project and select edit from context menu

Step3: Add <SpecificVersion>true</SpecificVersion> to the reference. Below is a sample from my repro solution:

<ProjectReference Include="..\HighFX\HighFX.csproj">
  <Project>{8DD71CAF-BEF7-40ED-9DD0-25033CD8009D}</Project>
  <Name>HighFX</Name>
  <SpecificVersion>true</SpecificVersion>
</ProjectReference>

Step4: Reload the project.

Now your should be able to build within the Visual Studio 2010, there could still be a warning as below, but the build can be successful.

Source: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/msbuild/thread/dfadfb34-5328-4c53-8274-931c6ae00836

Visual-studio – Assembly Binding Redirection and Code Analysis

Just to supplement with a little more precise answer:

You need to either run FxCopCmd.exe with:

fxcopcmd.exe /assemblyCompareMode:StrongNameIgnoringVersion

or modify your Visual Studio project file for each build configuration's property group, like this:

<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCPU' ">
  ...
  <CodeAnalysisAdditionalOptions>/assemblyCompareMode:StrongNameIgnoringVersion</CodeAnalysisAdditionalOptions>
</PropertyGroup>

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Visual Studio 2010: Reference Assemblies Targeting Higher Framework Version

Visual-studio – Assembly Binding Redirection and Code Analysis

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