What is a Satellite Assembly?

A .NET Framework assembly containing resources specific to a given language. Using satellite assemblies, you can place the resources for different languages in different assemblies, and the correct assembly is loaded into memory only if the user selects to view the application in that language. In general, assemblies should contain culture-neutral resources. If you want to localize your assembly (for example use different strings for different locales) you should use satellite assemblies.

Use the Assembly Linker (Al.exe) to compile .resources files into satellite assemblies. Al.exe creates an assembly from the .resources files that you specify. By definition, satellite assemblies can only contain resources. They cannot contain any executable code.