Open Software Solutions

Source: Microsoft Support

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You have developed a .NET application that references a class library assembly. The class library assembly has been compiled to specifically target a particular platform (x86 or x64).

When your application attempts to instantiate a type in the referenced assembly, you receive the following error message.

BadImageFormatException was unhandled

Exception Details:

System.BadImageFormatException was unhandled

Message=Could not load file or assembly ‘<Assembly Name>, Version=<Assembly Version>, Culture=<culture>, PublicKeyToken=<PublicKeyToken>’ or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.

32-bit processes can only load and execute 32-bit modules in process. Likewise, 64-bit processes can only load and execute 64-bit modules in process.

If your application is compiled to target a specific platform (x86 or x64), but attempts to load and execute an assembly that targets a different platform, the BadImageFormatException will occur. This behavior will also occur if your application is compiled targeting the AnyCPU platform, and then is run an operating system whose platform differs than the assembly whose type you are trying to instantiate. For example, if the main application is compiled to AnyCPU, and references an assembly that targets x86, then if you run the application on an x64 operating system, the BadImageFormatException will occur.

This behavior is by design.

Rebuild the referenced assembly using the AnyCPU setting. This would allow the class contained in it to be instantiated within a 32-bit process, or in a 64-bit process.

Advanced Compiler Settings Dialog Box (Visual Basic)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/07bysfz2.aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/07bysfz2.aspx)

/platform (Specify Output Platform) (C# Compiler Options)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zekwfyz4.aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zekwfyz4.aspx)

If you are referencing a third party component and cannot rebuild it yourself, contact the component vendor to see if a version of the assembly is available that has been compiled targeting AnyCPU. This will allow the Common Language Run-time (CLR) to Just-In-Time (JIT) compile to run as either a 32-bit or 64-bit module, depending on the machine architecture the operating system and host process are targeting.

While Visual Studio allows you to add references to assemblies that are compiled to target a different platform than the main application, you will receive compiler warnings to indicate possible problems. For example,

warning CS1607: Assembly generation — Referenced assembly ‘<referenced assembly.dll>’ targets a different processor

vbc : warning BC40010: Possible problem detected while building assembly ‘<project name.exe>’: Referenced assembly ‘<referenced assembly.dll>’ targets a different processor

For more information on the limitations of process interoperability, please see the following MSDN article.

Process Interoperability
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa384231(VS.85).aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa384231(VS.85).aspx)

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