Manifest resources are XML files that describe the dependencies that an application uses. For example, in Visual Studio, the MFC wizard-generated manifest file defines which of the Windows common control DLLs the application should use, version 5.0 or 6.0:

<description>Your app description here</description> 
<dependency> 
    <dependentAssembly> 
        <assemblyIdentity 
            type="win32" 
            name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls" 
            version="6.0.0.0" 
            processorArchitecture="X86" 
            publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df" 
            language="*" 
        /> 
    </dependentAssembly> 
</dependency> 

For a Windows XP application, the manifest resource not only specifies that the application use the most current version of the Windows common controls (v6.0, as seen above) but it also supports the new Syslink control. For more information on the updated common controls and Window XP, see Updated Common Controls in the Platform SDK.

To view the version and type information contained in a manifest resource, you can open the file in an XML viewer or in the Visual Studio Text Editor. For more information, see Opening a manifest resource in the Visual Studio Text Editor.

For information on adding resources to managed projects, please see Resources in Applications in the .NET Framework Developer's Guide. For information on manually adding resource files to managed projects, accessing resources, displaying static resources, and assigning resources strings to properties, see Walkthrough: Localizing Windows Forms and Walkthrough: Localizing Web Forms.

Limitations

You can only have one manifest resource per module.

Requirements

Win32

See Also

Controls | Working with Resources