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Is there a Spy++ like utility for WPF?

As a “hardcore” WinForms programmer from a Win32 background I have always used Spy++ to understand what my applications are doing at the UI level including:

  • Seeing what events the controls are sending to each other.
  • Seeing the control tree at run time
  • Finding the control that is drawing part of the display

I then often search for the control name in the source code, very useful when you have to change the UI on a large application you don’t know well.

So how do I do the same with a WPF application?

(You may assume I have access to the source code of the WPF application if needed, however I rather the utility worked without the need for the applications source code.)


Thanks for the answers, I have just searched for “Snoop” in StackOverflow and found a few questions/answers with lists of WPF tools.

  • What tools do you use for WPF development
  • Tools to develop WPF or Silverlight applications
  • How to speed up WPF programs? - has a list of related tools
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Ian Ringrose Avatar asked Nov 04 '09 09:11

Ian Ringrose


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1 Answers

Yes, you can use Snoop. It is exactly like Spy++ for WPF.

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japf Avatar answered Sep 16 '22 16:09

japf