Referencing custom libraries from Visual Studio

Sometimes you will want to reference some libraries within Visual Studio, which by default does not appear in VS reference dialog. For example, you open the Add Reference dialog in VS and want that assemblies from some specific path appear in the “.NET” tab.

Following example shows how to add the path for following folder:

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.0\Windows Communication Foundation

To do that create a new key in registry as follows:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\AssemblyFolders\NET30Wcf

NET30Wcf can be name of your choice.

After the key is created add the target path, which contains assemblies, which should appear in the visual studio “Add References” dialog. Here is an example:

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.0\Windows Communication Foundation\