Note: This article was originally published in 2011. Some steps, commands, or software versions may have changed. Check the current Microsoft documentation for the latest information.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • Windows Server installed
  • Administrator access
  • Remote Desktop or direct console access

So, you probably have already tried going to the GAC and selecting uninstall, if not, below are the instructions:

  1. Navigate to the GAC, which is located at %systemdrive%WindowsAssembly.
  2. Right-click on the assembly you wish to uninstall, click Uninstall , and then click Yes to confirm. 

In my case I kept wondering why I can’t possibly follow those simple instructions. The reason is that you have to be able to write to the directory (i.e. have permissions to write to the directory) which you would think as an administrator you would, but it turns out you have to be a local administrator to do that. Anyway, so what should the people who don’t want to bother doing that can do? Well, you can run a command line to uninstall Dlls pretty easily, just remember to execute it using elevated permissions:

  1. Open a Visual Studio command prompt and don’t forget to right click and run as an Administrator. click **MicrosoftVisual Studio 20xxCommand Prompt.
  2. At the command prompt, type the following command: gacutil /u <fully qualified assembly name >****In this command, assembly name is the name of the assembly to uninstall from the GAC. For examplegacutil /u “Domain.Solution.Project,Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=somekeyvalue” gacutil /u Telerik.Web.UI

Summary

You’ve successfully learned uninstall an assembly (dll) from the gac. If you run into any issues, double-check the prerequisites and ensure your Microsoft environment is properly configured.