Chrome Early Loading Framework (aka ChromeELF) chrome_elf.dll is shipped in Chrome's version directory to ease updates, and is loaded early in chrome.exe's lifetime. This is done by turning the version directory into a private assembly which refers to chrome_elf.dll (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/aa374224.aspx). In an ideal world, this would be done by embedding an application config in chrome.exe that would refer to the proper version directory via a probing\privatePath attribute (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/aa374182.aspx). This would allow us to refer to dlls in the version directory without having to make the version directory itself into an assembly. It would also avoid naming conflicts (as the WinSxS dir and GAC both take precedence over private assemblies when searching for dlls). Unfortunately, the probing\privatePath attribute is only supported for Windows 7 and later.