Managed version of Spy++ Tool?

Question

Awhile ago, I needed a Spy++ like application for some .NET UI debugging. I found an old MSDN article with a sample that does things similarly, But that stopped working in newer .NET Framework versions.

Does anyone know of/wrote an application that mimics Spy++ behavior and works on Managed applications (rather, shows Managed events/properties) and works on newer .NET Frameworks, up to 4.0?

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 01 '11 at 08:54

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I can recommend UISpy, a spy utility which uses the UI Automation framework to transparently spy on plain Win32 applications as well as Windows Forms or WPF. It's a bit hard to find UISpy, but I downloaded just the executable itself from http://andrewtokeley.net/archive/2009/09/15/uispy-ndash-download-it-here.aspx - works great!

For .NET applications using Windows Forms and WPF, the application makes use of .NET reflection to display a huge number of properties for the objects.

answered Feb 01 '11 at 08:54

Frerich Raabe

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It is no substitute for Managed Spy++ by a long shot. – Hans Passant Feb 01 '11 at 10:58
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@Hans Passant: Are you sure that's right in this case? The question asks for a tool that `shows Managed events/properties`. UISpy can do that. – Frerich Raabe Feb 02 '11 at 09:05

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 01 '11 at 08:52

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For winforms applications you still can use Spy++ as usual.

For WPF applications take a look to this link . It talks about a tool called snoop. With this tool you can look into a WPF application.

As a side note, I haven't been able to make it work though

answered Feb 01 '11 at 08:52

HyLian

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For the latest/best version of Snoop, go to http://snoopwpf.codeplex.com/ - it does x86 and x64 in one executable and is much more stable. – Dan Puzey Feb 01 '11 at 09:09
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+1 for Snoop. Make sure you run it as administrator when you launch it. – meklarian Mar 07 '11 at 21:42
I had used WPF Inspector for a commercial project and it works great. Even snoop works good for me, but I'm more inclined towards WPF Inspector. You can find it here http://wpfinspector.codeplex.com/ – Anil Vangari Oct 05 '12 at 11:30

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 25 '15 at 16:55

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The Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows 8.1 includes a tool named "Inspect Objects" that I believe is intended as a Spy++ replacement.

edited Aug 25 '15 at 16:55

ErikE

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answered Jun 10 '11 at 20:17

John M. Wright

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I'm not so sure this does the same - Seems like it shows only automation relevant properties and only allows read only viewing. – Ran Sagy Jun 14 '11 at 08:42
@RanSagy Incorrect. Also since when did Spy++ allow you to change things? – Jan 03 '18 at 04:20
@MickyD i doubt i remember why and qhat i was thinking in 2011. thanks for the follow-up though. – Ran Sagy Jan 03 '18 at 09:04

Managed version of Spy++ Tool?

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