File Version and Assembly Version

Well, every exe or dll file managed by the Windows OS has a file version (0.0.0.0 by default) but only .NET assemblies have an assembly version (again 0.0.0.0 by default). You can set them independently.


Here's a quick example (compile this to version.exe):


using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Reflection;


class Version
{
   static void Main()
   {
     string fileVersion = FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo("version.exe").FileVersion;
     Console.WriteLine(fileVersion);
     string assemblyVersion = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version.ToString();
     Console.WriteLine(assemblyVersion);


     string fileVersion2 = FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo(@"c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe").FileVersion;
     Console.WriteLine(fileVersion2);
     Console.ReadKey();
   }
}


On my Windows 7 machine, the output is:

0.0.0.0
0.0.0.0
6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)