>>>So if I understand correctly, you have a EXE and a set of DLLs which, depending on the configuration, may or may not be required for a specific installation?
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>>The application executable is an EXE for a desktop application and a DLL for a Web and a Web Service applications.
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>>Each applicable relies on the framework and its name is Framework.dll. So, at minimum, there is always two files for the application to execute. Then, based on the application, additional DLL (some tied to the framework) might have to be dropped into the Bin directory as well.
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>>> It may be a bit hard to retro-fit but you could look at using something like MEF so that the EXE could discover, load and use the DLLs that were included in the installation?
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>>What does MEF stand for?
>
>Managed Extensibility Framework. It is not really a framework but a mechanism for extending .NET (hence the name). It falls into a category called inversion of control or dependency injection. The gist of it is compliant helpers are discovered at runtime. One of the most memorable demos I have ever seen was a couple of years ago at a .NET user group meeting. The presenter showed a simplified app which used MEF. It used a Windows timer call to discover files in a given folder. The folder consisted of pictures of animals. He added a picture of an elephant and voila, an elephant appeared on the form. No code change, no recompilation. Now that was cool.

Tsk. Tsk VIOLA !