What runtime will .NET 1.1 DLL-references use in a .NET 2.0 application?

Question

Hi all !

I just migrated an application from .NET 1.1 to .NET 2.0, because I've been experiencing problems with .NET 1.1 runtime on certain Windows workstations.

The migration worked out fine, but some of the references is still referring to 3rd party DLL's that has been compiled under .NET 1.1.

What runtime will be used to run these .NET 1.1 DLL's, when they are used in my .NET 2.0 application?

Regards
Stefan Hansen

Answer 1

Only a single runtime can be loaded into a process, if your app is using the 2.0 runtime there is no way for it to load the 1.1 runtime since the 2.0 version is already loaded.

Answer 2

The .exe determines what CLR version gets loaded, possibly with help from a .config file.  That would have to be .NET 2.0 if you accomplished your goal.  The .NET 2.0 assembly loader has no problem with .NET 1.1 assemblies.

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Hans Passant.

Answer 3

Thanks, that's what i figured according to all the articles I've read, but I just couldn't find anyfinal answer :)

Answer 4

Runtime loads per process, so your 2.0 app will load 2.0 runtime and  1.1 assemblies will not have any problem running agianst 2.0 because 2.0 is a backward compatible release.

Answer 5

Absolutely, .Net 2.0 run-time environment is backward compatible...

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Ganesh Kumar

Answer 6

... except for a very long list of known breaking changes.

(Was that sarcasm. I wasn't sure).

It's mostly compatible. But there are breaking changes.