I'm experienced in C# but relatively unfamiliar with the concepts of AppDomain and the like. Anyway, I'm trying to get an assembly to load in a reflection-only context so I can grab all of its namespaces. Here is the code I have right now (warning: PowerShell):

function Get-Namespaces($assembly) { $assemblyClass = [Reflection.Assembly] $winmdClass = [Runtime.InteropServices.WindowsRuntime.WindowsRuntimeMetadata] $domain = [AppDomain]::CurrentDomain # Since desktop .NET can't work with winmd files, # we have to use the reflection-only APIs and preload # all the dependencies manually. $appDomainHandler = { Param($sender, $e); $assemblyClass::ReflectionOnlyLoad($e.Name) } $winmdHandler = { Param($sender, $e) [string[]] $empty = @() $path = $winmdClass::ResolveNamespace($e.NamespaceName, $empty) | select -Index 0 $e.ResolvedAssemblies.Add($assemblyClass::ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom($path)) } # Hook up the handlers $domain.add_ReflectionOnlyAssemblyResolve($appDomainHandler) $winmdClass::add_ReflectionOnlyNamespaceResolve($winmdHandler) # Do the actual work $assemblyObject = $assemblyClass::ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom($assembly) $types = $assemblyObject.GetTypes() $namespaces = $types | ? IsPublic | select Namespace -Unique # Deregister the handlers $domain.remove_ReflectionOnlyAssemblyResolve($appDomainHandler) $winmdClass::remove_ReflectionOnlyNamespaceResolve($winmdHandler) return $namespaces }

For some reason, when I'm running the function on assemblies like System.Xaml or WindowsBase I'm getting these errors:

Exception calling "ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom" with "1" argument(s): "API restriction: The assembly 'file:///C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\ Framework\.NETFramework\v4.6.1\System.Xaml.dll' has already loaded from a different location. It cannot be loaded from a new location within the same appdomain." At C:\Users\James\Code\csharp\Shims.Xaml\generate.ps1:50 char:5 + $assemblyObject = $assemblyClass::ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom($assembl ... + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : FileLoadException

So what I'd like to know is, how can I load the assembly in a new AppDomain? I checked MSDN but all I can find are methods like CreateInstanceAndUnwrap , which I can't/don't want to do since this is reflection-only.

TL;DR: How can I load assemblies in a reflection-only context in a new AppDomain? Both C# and PowerShell code samples welcome.

EDIT: Here is a GitHub gist of the script I've made, so others can repro the error/test changes.