Actually, one thing to note here is that the compiler is clever - it
will drop things that you have referenced but not used... just one to
watch if it doesn't work. You also need to watch for the circular
reference at the bottom ;-p

But something like below.

Marc

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Reflection;
static class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        Type type = GetType("System.Xml.XmlReader");
    }
    static Type GetType(string name)
    {
        // tryu the lazy way first
        Type type = Type.GetType(name);
        if (type != null) return type;

        List<string> skip = new List<string>();
        AssemblyName root = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().GetName();
        return WalkAssemblies(name, root, skip);
    }
    static Type WalkAssemblies(string name, AssemblyName an,
IList<string> skip)
    {
        // check "an" for the type
        skip.Add(an.FullName);
        Assembly a;
        try {
            a = Assembly.Load(an);
        } catch {
            return null; // oops
        }
        Type type = a.GetType(name);
        if (type != null) return type;

        // see what is referenced
        foreach(AssemblyName nextRef in a.GetReferencedAssemblies()) {
            if(skip.Contains(nextRef.FullName)) continue;
            type = WalkAssemblies(name, nextRef, skip);
            if (type != null) return type;
        }
        return null;

    }
}