Add Reference Dialog Box

Visual Studio

Displays tabbed panes that list the various types of components and projects you can browse. To view the Add Reference dialog box, select Add Reference from the Project menu, or right-click the References node in the Solution Explorer. Then select the tab for the type of component you wish to browse.

Note The number of tabs available at the top of the Add Reference dialog box varies, depending upon the type of project open and the resources it is using.

This dialog box edits the project references file for the selected project. A project references file contains information about the run-time requirements of an application or component, such as which files are needed, how they are to be registered, and where on the user's machine they should be installed.

Security Note There is an issue that arises when incorporating components that require full-trust permissions to run. During development, projects run at full-trust, which may not be the case in the environment the project is deployed to. At run time, if the environment is partial-trust, you can get code-access security violations. Thus, it is necessary to test applications in a variety of diverse 'trust' scenarios.

.NET Framework Tab: Lists all .NET Framework components available for referencing.
COM Tab: Lists all COM components available for referencing.
Projects Tab: Lists all projects available for referencing.
Component Name: The full, or "friendly," name of the component. Select the title to sort by the component name.
Version: The listed version number of the component. Select the title to sort by the version.
Path: The filename of the component and the path where it is located. Select the title to sort by the path.
Project Name: (Project Tab only.) Displays the names of referenced projects.
Project Directory: (Project Tab only.) Displays the directory location for referenced projects.
Browse: Displays the Select Component dialog box, which allows you browse additional files to find a component not listed in the current tab and add it to the Selected Components field.
Select: Adds the selected component to the Selected Components list. You can also double-click items to add them to the list.
Selected Components: Displays the selected components you will add to the project's browsing scope.
Type: The listed component type. Select the title to sort by the component type.
Source: The filename of the component and the path where it is located. Select the title to sort by the component path.
Remove: Removes a component reference from the Selected Components list. Doing so does not delete the actual component from the system.

Smart Device Developer Notes

COM Tab: Not exposed.

Smart Device Developer Notes

See Also