So which CLR will my app use?

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We have shipped several versions of .Net framework: 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0 is on the horizon. All of them are side by side, meaning, someone may be using 1.0 CLR, at the same time, someone else is using 1.1 CLR. In the same process, there can be only one CLR. Once CLR is loaded in the process, it cannot be unloaded.

 

So which CLR will my app use?

 

It depends on which .Net framework has installed, and which framework your app is built with.

 

The real component to determine which CLR to load is mscoree.dll, residing in %windir%\system32. When you install .Net framework, it will replace mscoree.dll if the existing one is older then the one it carries, and it will leave it alone if the existing one is newer. So we always have the latest mscoree.dll in %windir%\system32, even the corresponding .Net framework has been uninstalled. For this reason, mscoree.dll has to maintain very strict compatibility.

 

Because we always have the latest mscoree.dll, the following discussion is based on what newest .Net framework you have ever installed.

 

If only 1.0 is installed, then 1.0 CLR will always be used. 1.0 mscoree.dll is not side by side aware.

 

If 1.1 is installed, then the CLR you built with will be loaded. If you built your app with 1.0, then 1.0 CLR will be loaded. If you built your app with 1.1, then 1.1 CLR will be loaded. If the required CLR is not available in your machine, mscoree.dll will bring up a dialog and quit. This is so that your app won’t run under a different CLR that you did not test.

 

The thinking shifts in 2.0. In 2.0, mscoree.dll will try to use the CLR you built with first. If that CLR cannot be found, mscoree.dll will load 2.0 CLR to run your app. But if the CLR you built with is newer than (the currently installed) 2.0, mscoree.dll will bring up the same dialog and quit. The latter behavior is frequently seen in internal testing.

 

For apps built with interim release, mscoree.dll maps it to the closest officially released CLR. So 1.0 beta2+ will use 1.0 CLR. 1.1 beta will use 1.1 CLR.

 

Of course, you can use a config file to overwrite the default behavior.

 

https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/cpguide/html/cpconside-by-sideexecution.asp has more information.