Finding WindowsBase.dll

OK, what's the deal with WindowsBase.dll? It's the dll where the System.IO.Packaging API lives, and you have to add a reference to it in your project before you can use the packaging API. And it's never there at the end of the .NET tab on my "Add Reference" dialog. For example, here's my list, which ends with VsWebSite.Interop. So I have to manually browse to the dll, as shown to the right.

Is it me? I did some searching on-line, and I don't think it is.

Hai has the same problem, Dave has to find in manually, Howard can't seem to find it at all, and even the folks at MSDN seem to have problems finding WindowsBase.dll. And that's just a representative sample -- search for WindowsBase.dll and you'll find a bunch more people talking about where to manually locate it.

But some people don't have any problem, apparently. They have WindowsBase.dll right there on the .NET tab, ready to click on it, no searching required. Ted Pattison, for instance, has it under his .NET tab, and even has a screen shot in his recent MSDN article to prove it. (Showoff! Great article, though.) And Mauricio seems to find it his .NET tab, too.

What do the rest of us have to do to get WindowsBase on that .NET tab? I used to think this was something I had screwed up myself, but this week I formatted my C: drive, installed Vista, installed Visual Studio, and ... WindowsBase.dll was not on the .NET tab, and I had to manually browse to it.

If you're one of us WindowsBase-challenged types, here's what you need to know:

c:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.0\WindowsBase.dll