Description
You inherit an old project where a third-party DLL has no source and no documentation, and the meaning of its method parameters is guesswork; or production throws an exception whose stack points inside a dependency and you want to see what that line actually does. dotPeek is for exactly this — it decompiles .NET assemblies back into readable C#, opening dll, exe, winmd and nupkg files, and even assemblies inside zip archives.
A free JetBrains tool, it carries over ReSharper's navigation: the assembly explorer expands by namespace and type, with find usages, go to declaration, and type hierarchy views, and search works inside the decompiled code too. Beyond reading, it exports decompiled output as a Visual Studio project, and it can act as a symbol server so Visual Studio steps straight into decompiled sources while debugging third-party libraries.
Alongside C# it shows raw IL, a side-by-side IL and C# view, and low-level metadata (PE headers, tables, string heaps), which is what you need when dealing with obfuscation or compiler-generated code. Entirely free.
Decompiles to C#: assemblies come back as readable C# at a selectable language level, with modern constructs such as async/await, lambdas and pattern matching reconstructed correctly.
Many formats: opens dll, exe, winmd, nupkg and vsix files as well as assemblies inside archives, with no unpacking step first.
Assembly explorer: browse by assembly, namespace and type with references listed alongside, which makes structure clearer than digging through files.
ReSharper-style navigation: find usages, go to declaration and inspect type hierarchies — navigating decompiled code feels much like navigating your own.
Export as project: decompiled output saves as a Visual Studio project ready to build, modify or keep as reference.
Symbol server: dotPeek can run as a symbol server so Visual Studio requests symbols from it and steps directly into decompiled third-party sources during debugging.
IL and metadata views: raw IL, a combined IL-and-C# view, and low-level structures including PE headers, metadata tables and string heaps.
Process explorer: inspect which assemblies a running .NET process has loaded and open them straight from it.
Free: provided free by JetBrains with no license required, and also available as part of the dotUltimate suite.
A free JetBrains tool, it carries over ReSharper's navigation: the assembly explorer expands by namespace and type, with find usages, go to declaration, and type hierarchy views, and search works inside the decompiled code too. Beyond reading, it exports decompiled output as a Visual Studio project, and it can act as a symbol server so Visual Studio steps straight into decompiled sources while debugging third-party libraries.
Alongside C# it shows raw IL, a side-by-side IL and C# view, and low-level metadata (PE headers, tables, string heaps), which is what you need when dealing with obfuscation or compiler-generated code. Entirely free.
Features
Decompiles to C#: assemblies come back as readable C# at a selectable language level, with modern constructs such as async/await, lambdas and pattern matching reconstructed correctly.
Many formats: opens dll, exe, winmd, nupkg and vsix files as well as assemblies inside archives, with no unpacking step first.
Assembly explorer: browse by assembly, namespace and type with references listed alongside, which makes structure clearer than digging through files.
ReSharper-style navigation: find usages, go to declaration and inspect type hierarchies — navigating decompiled code feels much like navigating your own.
Export as project: decompiled output saves as a Visual Studio project ready to build, modify or keep as reference.
Symbol server: dotPeek can run as a symbol server so Visual Studio requests symbols from it and steps directly into decompiled third-party sources during debugging.
IL and metadata views: raw IL, a combined IL-and-C# view, and low-level structures including PE headers, metadata tables and string heaps.
Process explorer: inspect which assemblies a running .NET process has loaded and open them straight from it.
Free: provided free by JetBrains with no license required, and also available as part of the dotUltimate suite.
