.NET Decompiling Tools: Part 1

We are going to discuss the Decompiling tools, features, pros and cons, and how to use the tool to decompile the assembly and assembly browser. There is a lot of open source and paid tools in the market.
 
List of available tools as in the following:
  1. ILSpy
  2. dotPeek
  3. Telerik JustDecompiler
  4. .NET Reflector

ILSpy

 
We can discuss one of the interesting tools, ILSpy is an open-source tool for .NET assembly browser and decompiler. It started the development plan after Red Gate announced that the free version of .NET Reflector tool support ends in 2011. It required a .NET Framework 4.0 to run the decompiler tool for the .NET application.
 
List of features as in the following:
  1. Assembly browsing
  2. IL Disassembly
  3. Support C# 5.0 async
  4. Decompilation to C#
  5. Support lambdas and yield return
  6. Sows XML documentation
  7. Decompilation to VB
  8. Saving of resources
  9. Save decompiled assembly as .cs proj
  10. Search for types/methods/properties (substring)
  11. Hyperlink-based type/method/property navigation
  12. Base/Derived types of navigation
  13. Navigation history
  14. BAML to XAML decompiler
  15. Save Assembly as C# project
  16. Find usages of field/method
  17. Extensible via plugins (MEF)
  18. Assembly Lists
We can easily download the ILSpy Tool from the ILSpy Website and unzip it,
 
 
Go to the ILSpy Unzipped folder location and double click the ILSpy application icon,
 
 
Go to the File menu and click the open menu and then browse the .NET assemblies “log4net”.
 
  
Pros
  1. Open source and free tool.
  2. Easy to use interface and fast.
  3. It will be supporting all features and working well.
Cons
  1. The UI doesn’t seem to be good.
  2. No proper documentation.
We can discuss remaining .NET decompiler tools, features, pros & cons, and so on in the next article.
 

Conclusion

 
This article helps you to understand the ILSpy Decompiler tool with features, pros & cons, and tool installation. Thank you for reading my articles. Kindly share your comments or suggestions. 


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