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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-23T02:17:33+00:00

What decides the target framework version of a satellite assembly? Looking at the log

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What decides the target framework version of a satellite assembly?

Looking at the log file I can see the satellite assembly is build by running ResGen.exe and Al.exe but I can’t find out what decides the target framework of the resulting assembly.

Background

I’m trying to resolve a problem where a satellite assembly gets targeted for the .NET 4.0 runtime when I build it on the build server but targeted for .NET 2.0 runtime when I compile it on my development computer. The rest of the solution is targeted for .NET 2.0 runtime and the executable will not load the satellite assembly if it is targeted for .NET 4.0 runtime.

I have tried building the project “manually” using msbuild on the build server which also results in a satellite assembly targeted for .NET 2.0 runtime.

I only get the wrong target runtime version of 4.0 when I build using the automated build server.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I just spent the whole day tracking this down, but I think I have it solved. Yes, I am a martyr. Benefit from the findings of misfortunate adventure!

    My best guess is that the Windows 7.1 SDK installation seems to have a bug in it regarding the registry keys it adds. Some of the registry values point to 7.0a when it should point to 7.1. Additionally, some of the registry keys are incorrectly named.

    After some manual changes, my resource DLLs were back to compiling to the appropriate target version of the framework. I’m pretty sure an x64 version would not be patched with my changes. Use at your own risk!

    I personally am not too happy with having a hacked up registry for our build server, though. Who knows what other horrors await me at runtime on my server builds. I’m considering just installing Visual Studio 2010.

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\WinSDK-NetFx35Tools]
"InstallationFolder"="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft SDKs\\Windows\\v7.1\\bin\\"
"ProductVersion"="7.1.7600.0.30514"
"ComponentName"="Microsoft Windows SDK NetFx 3.5 Tools"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\WinSDK-NetFx35Tools\1033]
"SP"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\WinSDK-NetFx35Tools-x86]
"InstallationFolder"="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft SDKs\\Windows\\v7.1\\bin\\"
"ProductVersion"="7.1.7600.0.30514"
"ComponentName"="Microsoft Windows SDK NetFx 3.5 Tools"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\WinSDK-NetFx35Tools-x86\1033]
"SP"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\4.0]
"MSBuildToolsPath"="c:\\WINDOWS\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework\\v4.0.30319\\"
"MSBuildToolsRoot"="c:\\WINDOWS\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework\\"
"FrameworkSDKRoot"="$(Registry:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Microsoft SDKs\\Windows\\v7.1@InstallationFolder)"
"MSBuildRuntimeVersion"="4.0.30319"
"SDK40ToolsPath"="$(Registry:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Microsoft SDKs\\Windows\\v7.1\\WinSDK-NetFx40Tools-x86@InstallationFolder)"
"SDK35ToolsPath"="$(Registry:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Microsoft SDKs\\Windows\\v7.1\\WinSDK-NetFx35Tools-x86@InstallationFolder)"
"MSBuildToolsPath32"="$(Registry:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\MSBuild\\ToolsVersions\\4.0@MSBuildToolsPath)"
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