Something really cool that is coming in the Whidbey release of ASP.NET is Web Resources.  ASP.NET Web Resources will allow you to add and reference items such as images and CSS files directly from your compiled assembly.

This is a dream come true for those who distribute ASP.NET applications. No longer the need to distribute the loose supporting files, or even construct them on the fly - which is more commonly the case.

Adding an item to the web resource for your application will be as simple as adding the assembly level WebResource attribute, such as the following, usually added to the assembly.cs file:

[assembly: WebResource(“MyImage.gif”, “image/gif”)]

Using it will be even easier. You will be given a url to the resouces via the new Page.GetWebResourceUrl - which is also cached. This url will support query string parameters as to indicate the resouce and date of resources requested. Very cool.