Show HN: Free Windows shell extension for quick .NET assembly inspection

Posted by tebjan on Wednesday February 18, 2026 @10:27AM
from the show-hn dept.

https://github.com/tebjan/AssemblyInformation

Updated an old CodePlex tool (2008) that adds "Assembly Information" to Windows Explorer's right-click menu for DLLs/EXEs.

Shows: Compilation mode (Debug/Release), target framework, PE architecture, dependency tree (clickable).

Implementation: Uses MetadataLoadContext instead of Assembly.Load, so it reads metadata without executing code. Works across all .NET versions (Framework 2.0 through .NET 8+). C++ ATL/COM shell extension for Explorer integration.

Safe for inspecting untrusted assemblies since it never loads them into the runtime.

History: Originally by rockrotem & Ashutosh Bhawasinka (2008-2012, CodePlex), migrated to GitHub by Jozef Izso (2014).

Handy when you're debugging dependency issues or stuck in DLL hell.