GitHub – hfiref0x/WinDepends: Windows Dependencies

(reportedly working on Windows 8.1, but we do not officially support it, and ApiSet resolving will be unavailable)

WinDepends is a rewrite of the Dependency Walker utility which for a long time was a “must-have” tool when it comes to Windows PE files analysis and building a hierarchical tree diagram of all dependent modules. Unfortunately, development of this tool stopped around the Windows Vista release, and since that time, Microsoft introduced a lot of new features “under the hood” of the loader that eventually broke Dependency Walker and made its use painful, especially on the newest Windows versions with tons of artificial DLLs, a.k.a. ApiSet contracts. Unfortunately, none of the existing “replacements” are even slightly comparable to the original in terms of implementation or features. That’s why this project was born. It was in the mind for many years but has never had enough time or will to be implemented, until these days.

• Scans any 32-bit or 64-bit Windows module (exe, dll, ocx, sys, etc.) and builds a hierarchical tree diagram of all dependent modules. For each module found, it lists all the functions that are exported by that module, and which of those functions are actually being called by other modules. Another view displays the minimum set of required files, along with detailed information about each file including a full path to the file, base address, version numbers, machine type, debug information, and more.
• Support delay-load dlls, ApiSet contracts (schema version 6, Win10/11), bound import, Side-by-Side modules.
• Support drag and drop, most recently used files list.
• Support configuration, external viewer, external help command, module path resolution, search order and PE loader relocations settings.
• C++ function name undecorating to provide human readable C++ function prototypes including function names, return types, and parameter types.
• Ability to save current session into a file and restore it back in program.
• Client-server architecture, client is a WinForms NET application providing GUI and server is a windowless C application responsible for parsing PE files.

• Program current state is BETA. Several features of original Dependency Walker are not yet available or were considered obsolete and not implemented (e.g. profiling).
• MDI GUI mess has been discontinued, if you want to analyze several files at the same time you can launch another copy of program.
• Help file is currently missing, we plan to move all documentation on a separate public repository and publish it as a PDF file.
• Several functionally may not work as expected or be disabled due to beta state.
• CLI version is not yet implemented, we are still not sure is it needed or not.
• ARM binaries are not tested in native environment as we don’t have it in a bare metal.
• Some limitations comes from Windows OS support, for example we do not support ApiSet schema versions prior to Windows 10, because Windows 10 is a minimum supported OS.
• If you found a bug, have a suggestion or want to do pull request – feel free to do so, we appreciate your input.

WinDepends repository contain directory named “bin”:

• WinDepends.exe – main GUI application (client)
• WinDepends.Core.exe – windowless application (server) which is launched by client
• PDB files for both client/server

There are no specific installation requirements, just copy this folder somewhere on your computer (rename it if you wish) and run WinDepends.exe from it. Uninstallation is also simple – terminate client, server process and delete files.

• Build platform is a Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 with latest SDK installed.
• Application (client) is written in C#, using Windows Forms and NET 8.0.
• Server is written in C, with no special headers or SDK used.
• Source code also include server test application (WinDepends.Core.Tests) and simple fuzzer (WinDepends.Core.Fuzz).

We are not chasing the latest versions of frameworks, SDKs or language standards, so for example, if the .NET platform is updated, it will happen in the next LTS release (NET 10).

MIT

(c) 2024 WinDepends Project

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