22 October 2008, 15:00

Crack.Net inspects running .Net applications

Developers who want to know more about the inner workings of a running .Net program can use the free Crack.Net application which makes it possible to view the managed heap of an application and to inspect and change objects there. Josh Smith, the author, was involved in the creation of the Mole debugger for Visual Studio and combined its functions with those of the free Snoop tool which allowed developers to view a running .Net program. annotated screenshot of Cracked.net interface
Crack.Net makes it possible to wander around in the managed heap of a .Net application Crack.Net integrates itself into desktop programs while they are running. It not only displays their objects, but also allows the user to modify them using IronPython scripts. These can be used to create new objects, such as GUI elements. Currently, Crack.Net only works with 32-bit applications and only with .Net applications that have a top-level window. The executable program and the source code can be downloaded from the project site on Codeplex and is licensed under the Microsoft Public Licence.