---
title: "Tool: The complete idiot's add-in for signing your assemblies with a strong name"
url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/12/23/tool-the-complete-idiots-add-in-for-signing-your-assemblies.md"
canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/12/23/tool-the-complete-idiots-add-in-for-signing-your-assemblies.html"
published: "2003-12-23T11:19:00"
updated: "2003-12-23T11:19:00"
tags: [".Net Quotations", "Cool Tools"]
author: "Roy Osherove"
description: "It is a shame that this ability has not been created sooner (shame on me, that is) but better late than never. Robert Mclaws has just introduced an add-in that allows you to easily manage the fuss that using a strong…"
usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)."
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# Tool: The complete idiot's add-in for signing your assemblies with a strong name

By Roy Osherove December 23, 2003 In [.Net Quotations](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-quotations), [Cool Tools](https://osherove.com/blog/category/cool-tools)

**Historical article** · Originally published December 23, 2003; technical details may be outdated.

It is a shame that this ability has not been created sooner (shame on me, that is) but better late than never. [Robert Mclaws](http://weblogs.asp.net/rmclaws/) has just introduced an [add-in that allows you to easily manage the fuss](http://weblogs.asp.net/rmclaws/archive/2003/12/23/45373.aspx) that using a strong named assembly entails. For now, it is completely free ~(but you need to register on his site)~. How very cool.

To me, Strong names are one of those features that I sort of [fear](http://neopoleon.com/blog/posts/2122.aspx), along with other stuff such as GDI+ and WSE . I guess I'll be needing it someday, but that day has not yet arrived.

**Update**: [Frans posted a complete idiot's list of the manual things you have to do](http://weblogs.asp.net/fbouma/archive/2003/12/23/45396.aspx). It is pretty easy to do, but I still like a plugin that does stuff automatically. Life.MakeEasier()== Developer.IsHappy.

(disclaimer:  Having a plugin does **not** give you the right to not understand what it is doing behind the scenes. do it manually until you understand it, **then** use the plugin to appreciate what (and if) it is worth to you. )

## More in .Net Quotations

[All posts in .Net Quotations](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-quotations)

- Dec 24, 2003

    ### [Good stuff: New book, Remoting for imbeciles,CodeSmith 2.5 RC1, and OMG 0.2](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/12/24/good-stuff-new-book-remoting-for-imbecilescodesmith-25-rc1-a.html)

- Dec 24, 2003

    ### [Good Article: Strong Names and Security in the .NET Framework](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/12/24/good-article-strong-names-and-security-in-the-net-framework.html)

- Dec 20, 2003

    ### [The idiot's guide to O/R mappers](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/12/20/the-idiots-guide-to-or-mappers.html)

- Dec 20, 2003

    ### [A New Source Control system](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/12/20/a-new-source-control-system.html)


---

## About the author

**Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery.

### Sites

- [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership.
- [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts.
- [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin.
- [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model.
- [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps.
- [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes).

### Social

- X: https://x.com/royosherove
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/

### Contact

- Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7

### License

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/