Which files are stored in Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0?

Question

I'd like to know which kind of files are stored in

C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework.NETFramework\v4.0\

Are those files meant for WPF/Silverlight?

And which installer install the files in that folder?

I'd like to know this because we have developed a winforms application with custom WPF controls. When we deploy the application on a bare system, the application crashes when these controls are used...

Answer 1

1. WPF is part of the .NET Framework since version 3.0
2. Silverlight is different from WPF and has a separate SDK download
3. Files located under Reference Assemblies folder, are usually installed by Visual studio when installing SDK and (in your case), are part of the Windows 7 and .NET 4 Framework SDK .
4. Winforms and WPF are quite different technologies. In short, Winforms are wrappers above Windows C++ MFC library and WPF are wrappers above DirectX library.
5. You should check the difference between Client profile and Full Framework because most of the time, your application should target the Client profile and in only few scenario, it should target the Full Framework. By the way, if you're using the .NET Framework 4.5 or above , Client profile has been discontinued . It simplifies the deployment process.
6. Check in the references properties in your C# project that the Copy Local is set to True . It will copy the referenced library in the output directory of the project.