How to enable assembly bind failure logging (Fusion) in .NET

Set the following registry value:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1

To disable, set to 0 or delete the value.

[edit ]:Save the following text to a file, e.g FusionEnableLog.reg, in Windows Registry Editor Format:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion]
"EnableLog"=dword:00000001

Then run the file from windows explorer and ignore the warning about possible damage.

There's so much wrong with the Assembly Binding Log Viewer (FUSLOGVW.exe) that I decided to write an alternative viewer named Fusion++ and put it on GitHub. It uses the same mechanics internally but parses the logs for you. You don't have to care for any settings at all, not even log paths

You can get the latest release from here or via chocolatey (choco install fusionplusplus).

I hope you and some of the visitors in here can save some worthy lifetime minutes with it.

For those who are a bit lazy, I recommend running this as a bat file for when ever you want to enable it:

reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion" /v EnableLog /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion" /v ForceLog /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion" /v LogFailures /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion" /v LogResourceBinds /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion" /v LogPath /t REG_SZ /d C:\FusionLog\

if not exist "C:\FusionLog\" mkdir C:\FusionLog

Just in case you're wondering about the location of FusionLog.exe - You know you have it, but you cannot find it? I was looking for FUSLOVW in last few years over and over again. After move to .NET 4.5 number of version of FUSION LOG has exploded. Her are places where it can be found on your disk, depending on software which you have installed:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools\x64

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\x64

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\bin\NETFX 4.5.1 Tools\x64

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\bin\NETFX 4.5.1 Tools

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin

In my case helped type disk name in lower case

Wrong - C:\someFolder

Correct - c:\someFolder