I want Spy++ but I don't have Visual Studio

Question

I only have SQL Server 2008 Client tools. I would like to use Spy++, but of course, it only comes with the Visual Studio installation.

Is there a good replacement for Spy++ that I can use?

btw, for WPF apps use Snoop for WPF and for WPF/Silverlight/etc. you can use XAML Spy (formerly Silverlight Spy) — George Birbilis, Jul 24 '15 at 14:51

score 37 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 29 '23 at 10:43

37

There is WinSpy++ by James Brown at Catch22.net

However, the software downloaded from the site as of today (Jan 2023) gets blocked by smartscreen and malware filters. It also only works for 32bit apps if you ignore all that and install anyway.

edited Jan 29 '23 at 10:43

kinar

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answered Nov 28 '09 at 00:04

Cory

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Does not seem to have any way to log messages, making it next to useless. – Kaz Apr 04 '13 at 08:32
Does have a crosshair though you can drop on UI elements to select them which is handy – George Birbilis Jul 24 '15 at 14:47
1

Firefox reports the downloads from this site as an 'Unwanted Software Page' – neurosock Jul 06 '17 at 16:29
@pepgma Ditto in Chrome (https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/safebrowsing/diagnostic/index.html?hl=en-US#url=http://www.catch22.net/sites/default/files/WinSpy17.zip). – Kirill Bulygin Jul 19 '17 at 18:36

score 32 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 19 '14 at 11:47

32

Winspector has been more helpful. Not sure why their site is down right now, but there are a lot of other places to download it.

edited Mar 19 '14 at 11:47

TLama

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answered Nov 27 '09 at 23:53

Yuriy Faktorovich

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You can still get it here: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Security-Related/Winspector.shtml – Jon Cage Jun 30 '10 at 11:16
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It seems not to work on a 64 bit Operating System :( – sergiol Mar 02 '16 at 18:12
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More specifically, it works on 64 bit Windows but doesn't seem to support 64bit apps – neurosock Jul 06 '17 at 17:43
Not capturing for me on windows 10 – Hamboy75 Mar 28 '20 at 09:43
@hamboy75 out of curiosity, were you running it as admin? – Yuriy Faktorovich Mar 28 '20 at 22:46
yes :(. spyxx14.rar worked for me. – Hamboy75 Mar 29 '20 at 08:01
https://www.filedropper.com/processing/filedownload.php?id=spyxx14 – Hamboy75 Mar 29 '20 at 08:01

score 20 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 03 '14 at 21:08

20

Visual Studio 2013 now has a community edition. See the Q&A on that page to see if you can use it.

Spy++ is included in the community edition. I had to launch the "Developer Command Prompt for VS2013" and then run the spyxx.exe executable from that command prompt. Searching for "spy++" or "spyxx" in the "Search programs and files" entry box on the (Windows 7) start menu didn't find it.

answered Dec 03 '14 at 21:08

chrish

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I see Spy++ at ""C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\Tools\spyxx.exe" (32-bit) and "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\Tools\spyxx_amd64.exe" (64-bit). Both seem to be installed under c:\Program Files (x86), but that location is probably cause Visual Studio is 32-bit itself – George Birbilis Jul 24 '15 at 14:44
Hmm, that didn't get installed for me; I guess it's in an optional component that I didn't ask for? – SamB Aug 15 '15 at 06:01
1

Oh. It looks like I have "express" (for windows desktop), not "community". That's not confusing at all ... – SamB Aug 17 '15 at 18:11

score 18 · Answer 4 · edited May 06 '19 at 00:56

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just download from:

http://mdb-blog.blogspot.com/2010/11/microsoft-spy-or-spyxx-for-download.html

it contains versions:

7.0
8.0
10.0
11.00
and 14.00 (latest)

edited May 06 '19 at 00:56

Mir-Ismaili

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answered Sep 28 '15 at 05:36

mr.baby123

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This seems to now be the latest: http://mdb-blog.blogspot.com/2017/02/download-microsoft-spy-140-2016-06-20.html – jdunning Aug 02 '17 at 20:52
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However, the above download does not include the mfc140u.dll C++ redistributable from Visual Studio. You can download that as a standalone from here: https://my.visualstudio.com/Downloads?pid=2082 though you'll need to opt into the Visual Studios Dev Essentials program for free. – jdunning Aug 02 '17 at 21:08
2

Also https://github.com/westoncampbell/SpyPlusPlus. – CoolMind May 24 '19 at 10:27

score 9 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 23 '11 at 14:58

9

A very decent effort to revive the beloved but defunct winspector is window detective : http://windowdetective.sourceforge.net/

answered Oct 23 '11 at 14:58

Mr_and_Mrs_D

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No 64 bit build available for capturing messages from 64 bit applications. – Kaz Apr 04 '13 at 08:33

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 04 '09 at 17:59

Visual UI Automation Verify

With the Visual UIA Verify, you can quickly find and select any UI element anywhere on the desktop. Based on the specific control type and the supported control patterns, UIA Verify provides the built-in test scenarios prioritized for the particular UI element. Developers can add additional test scenarios by adding the code to the UIA Test Library. The tool can output the test results or the summary in various forms. Visual UIA Verify can output test details in HTML.

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 27 '09 at 23:42

3

The free download for windows SDK includes UISpy... is that close enough?

answered Nov 27 '09 at 23:42

John Weldon

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score 3 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 24 '09 at 01:28

I think WinSpy++ looks like the best bet, especially since it ships with source and is compatible with Vista (Win7 too presumably).

However, the first clone I'd run across was WinID. No source and claims not to support Vista, but it may do some things WinSpy++ doesn't...like extracting icons and fonts ("Capture Shot").

Note: tried to post this as a comment and not an answer, but the link wouldn't work.

score 2 · Answer 9 · edited Jul 24 '15 at 15:14

2

I just used Windows Detective. Worth taking a look:

http://windowdetective.sourceforge.net/

edited Jul 24 '15 at 15:14

George Birbilis

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answered Jul 16 '15 at 13:23

Ephraim

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No support for 64-bit processes. A 2017 build x_x – Pavel Vlasov Apr 21 '18 at 19:01

score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:53

0

Try using HWndSpy.
Source code is here.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:53

Community

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answered Jan 12 '16 at 06:24

Stack

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I want Spy++ but I don't have Visual Studio

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