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How to use FSnap to locate files with a specific version in the GAC

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The following steps can be used to gather a list of all files installed in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) on your system and then remove files that have been orphaned during the uninstall process for Visual Studio 2005 beta products:

  1. Download the FSnap tool and extract it to c:\fsnap.exe on your machine

  2. Click on the Start menu, choose Run, type cmd and click OK

  3. Type this command in the cmd prompt and press enter to run it: c:\fsnap.exe /bs c:\windows\assembly\ > c:\file_list.txt

    Please note that you will need to change the paths in the steps above if you have your OS installed on a drive other than C. Also, make sure that you include the trailing \ after the "assembly" folder name or else the FSnap tool will not work correctly. 

  4. Look at the contents of c:\file_list.txt for any files with version number 2.0.xxxxx.xx or 8.0.xxxxx.xx where the xxxxx.xx is not equal to 50727.42.

    I have found it useful to import the contents of c:\file_list.txt into Excel and then sort alphabetically by column G (which is the file version column). That makes it easier to zero in on files that have suspicious version information.

  5. Close Visual Studio and/or reboot the system to make sure that there will not be any files in use

  6. Remove the files that fit this criteria using gacutil.exe (which is installed to %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin if you have VS 2005 installed and chose to install the .NET Framework SDK tools, or can be installed by installing the

If you do not have gacutil.exe or you try running it and it fails, then remove the files manually using the following steps:

  1. Click on the Start menu, choose Run and type cmd
  2. Type cd /d %windir%\assembly
  3. Type rd /s /q <full path to the directory containing the assembly with the specified version number>

<update date="12/9/2007"> Provided more specific steps for running fsnap.exe. It has to be run from a cmd prompt and not from the Windows Run dialog or else it will not produce an output file. </update>

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2006
    Hi Aron,

    A bit for fun, I made a little GUI enhancement for the fsnap-tool. So you can sort the items. http://Dzaebel.NET/FSnapView.htm

    ciao Frank

  • Anonymous
    March 29, 2006
    Your tool is very helpfull ! Thank you very much

  • Anonymous
    June 07, 2006
    having problems downloading your zip files. any chance they could be put on a more reliable server. because when i need them ... i'm already running thin on patience :)

    anyway, thanks for these blog posts. at least they give me hope that i'll be able to get everything re-installed ...

  • Anonymous
    June 07, 2006
    Hi Casey - I'm very sorry, but it looks like my file server is offline due to some power outages where the servers are stored.  They should be back online in a day or so.  Please contact me at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/contact.aspx if you would like me to email you a copy of the files in the meantime.

  • Anonymous
    June 19, 2006
    PingBack from http://www.eddieoneverything.com/windows-xp/working-around-the-1935-error-with-hresult-0x80131532-when-installing-visual-studio.php

  • Anonymous
    December 07, 2007
    my computer doesn't have file_list

  • Anonymous
    December 09, 2007
    The comment has been removed