So, here's the deal. I've got two ASP.NET applications, both of which use SQLServer Session State management. They also both use the same server. I've got a custom session class in an external DLL, which fully implements serialization, and which both applications have referenced. Each application, in turn, has a class which inherits from the DLL class, and both applications use their own respective classes for their session state. Now, what I was trying to accomplish was that if you wanted to go to the other application, it could look in the session (they all use the same session key) and treat the existing object there as the base (the one from the DLL), extract whatever login info you need, then overwrite the session object with your own. Unfortunately, when the second application attempts to read the session, it seems that it looks for the DLL of the first application, and when it can't find it, it throws an exception. Is there a flaw in my logic? Here's an example: // Global.asax of the 1st app protected void Session_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) { Session.Add( "UserSessionKey", new FirstUserSession()); // FirstUserSession inherits from BaseUserSession } Now the second application: // Global.asax of 2nd app protected void Session_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (Session["UserSessionKey"] != null) { BaseUserSession existing = (BaseUserSession)Session["UserSessionKey"]; SecondUserSession session = new SecondUserSession(); // This also inherits from BaseUserSession session.Authenticated = existing.Authenticated; session.Id = existing.Id; session.Role = existing.Role; Session.Add("UserSessionKey", session); } else { Session.Add("UserSessionKey", new SecondUserSession()); } } Here's the exception stack trace. In this case, "MyCBC" is the real name of the first app, and "ASPTesting" is the second app. [SerializationException: Unable to find assembly 'MyCBC, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'.] System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryAssemblyInfo.GetAssembly() +1871092 System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.ObjectReader.GetType(BinaryAssemblyInfo assemblyInfo, String name) +7545734 System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.ObjectMap..ctor(String objectName, String[] memberNames, BinaryTypeEnum[] binaryTypeEnumA, Object[] typeInformationA, Int32[] memberAssemIds, ObjectReader objectReader, Int32 objectId, BinaryAssemblyInfo assemblyInfo, SizedArray assemIdToAssemblyTable) +120 System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.ObjectMap.Create(String name, String[] memberNames, BinaryTypeEnum[] binaryTypeEnumA, Object[] typeInformationA, Int32[] memberAssemIds, ObjectReader objectReader, Int32 objectId, BinaryAssemblyInfo assemblyInfo, SizedArray assemIdToAssemblyTable) +52 System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.__BinaryParser.ReadObjectWithMapTyped(BinaryObjectWithMapTyped record) +190 System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.__BinaryParser.ReadObjectWithMapTyped(BinaryHeaderEnum binaryHeaderEnum) +61 System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.__BinaryParser.Run() +253 System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.ObjectReader.Deserialize(HeaderHandler handler, __BinaryParser serParser, Boolean fCheck, Boolean isCrossAppDomain, IMethodCallMessage methodCallMessage) +168 System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream, HeaderHandler handler, Boolean fCheck, Boolean isCrossAppDomain, IMethodCallMessage methodCallMessage) +203 System.Web.Util.AltSerialization.ReadValueFromStream(BinaryReader reader) +788 System.Web.SessionState.SessionStateItemCollection.ReadValueFromStreamWithAssert() +55 System.Web.SessionState.SessionStateItemCollection.DeserializeItem(String name, Boolean check) +281 System.Web.SessionState.SessionStateItemCollection.get_Item(String name) +19 System.Web.SessionState.HttpSessionStateContainer.get_Item(String name) +13 System.Web.SessionState.HttpSessionState.get_Item(String name) +13 ASPTesting._Default.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Documents and Settings\sarsstu\My Documents\Projects\Testing\ASPTesting\ASPTesting\Default.aspx.cs:20 System.Web.Util.CalliHelper.EventArgFunctionCaller(IntPtr fp, Object o, Object t, EventArgs e) +14 System.Web.Util.CalliEventHandlerDelegateProxy.Callback(Object sender, EventArgs e) +35 System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e) +99 System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +50 System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +627 Thanks to everyone in advance.