Notes & articles

Release notes - .NET Reflector 7.x

.NET Reflector lets you decompile and debug into 3rd party .NET assemblies.

This article lists the features and bug fixes released from version 7.0 to 7.7

V7.7

• Collapse All Assemblies powercommand has now moved to file menu
• Collapse All Assemblies powercommand now has updated icon
• Collapse Assembly option added to assembly root node context menu
• Copy As powercommand moved to context menu
• Import/Export Assembly list powercommand moved to file menu
• Open file location moved to to assembly root node context menu
• Open with Powercommand added to context menu
• Open Zip by dragging zip into Reflector
• Referenced by Powercommand added to analyzer
• Removed older non-functional powercommands
• Archived less commonly used powercommands into powercommands addin
• Re-ordered Reflector context menu
• Added new icons for bookmark/remove bookmark
• Refresh icons in Visual Studio Extension
• Reflector intercept of f12 functionality in visual studio is now togglable.

V7.6

• Installer now "per-user" again, making management via VS smoother
• Coupled with work in Build 7, gives Reflector a true installer
• Installation process now attempts to elevate by default
  • Known issue – installing alongside Reflector 7.6.0.604 causes duplicate menus in visual Studio
• Updating Core tool splash screen
• Adding an installer
• Better support for SharePoint DLLs
• Further improvements and bug fixes for Async support
• Adding a dynamic welcome screen
• Extending our C#5 async functionality support
• Continued re-plumbing Reflector UI to better support Dev11 theming
• ROB & context menus now accept theming correctly
  • Known bug: some text in the ROB is rendered too light
• Continued improvements of C#5 async support.
• Support for most new async methods in System.IO
  • Known issue: nested Try blocks aren't currently handled very well
  • If we're not confident about async decompilation, Reflector emits code for .NET 4.0
• Updated "about" dialog in standalone tool
• Control over whether Delphi & Oxygene are available decompilation options
• WinMD files are now discoverable on both 32-bit and 64-bit machines.
• Continued work on theming support for Dev 11
• Further development on C#5 async functionality support
• Added early theming support for Dev 11
• Added early support C#5 async functionality
• Added functional support for Dev 11
• Added support for .NET Framework 4.5 and it's assemblies
• Added support for WinRT winmd libraries.
• Removed VS Addin support for VS 2005 / 2008

V7.5.2.1

• Reflector automatically detects the winmd directory, and can load the contained files into the assembly list

V7.5.2

• The ROB now remembers it's state each time you close & re-open Visual Studio
• Check For Updates will automatically update the Visual Studio Integration from older add-ins and packages

V7.5.1.13

• Fixed several com exceptions, mostly relating to race conditions
• Updated the trial dialog string

V7.5

• Many string changes to make things easier to understand
• Assorted design changes to dialogs and screens
• Improvements to the installation experience of the package
• Improved the speed of type by type decompilation
• Improved handling of the case where the add-in is superseded by the package (we remove the old menu items)
• Error reporting experience is more fine-tuned. Users have options to be notified of work-arounds and fixes
• Hide menu items such as "enable debugging", instead of just disabling them
• Make "enable debugging" work on all items of the tree, rather than just the top level assembly item
• "Go to decompiled definition" more commonly enabled.
• Setting a break point causes the necessary PDB file to be automatically generated
• Decompiled code can now be stepped-into like any other code
• Attempting to step into inaccessible code triggers instructions on how to debug it correctly
• Multiple PDBs can now be generated in parallel
  • PDB generation can currently take a little time, especially if you're generating several or the assemblies are particularly large
• The trial dialog screen has been updated to be more informative and clear
• Re-introduced "Go to Decompiled Definition" right-click menu item
• Improved support for 'Go to Definition'(F12) in code without source
• A number of simple usability enhancements
• A number of licensing and installation bug fixes
• Added support for 'Go to Definition'(F12) in code without source
• Improved path to decompiled code
• Improved path to pdb generation for code you want to debug
• Completed move to a VS Package
• Started transition from a VS Add-in to a VS Package
• Added support for VS11
• Turned on SmartAssembly feature usage reporting on by default for all EA builds
• Added loaded project references to the Reflector Object Browser (ROB)
• Double click on any type in the 'ROB' to decompile in a new VS editor pane
• Added a Reflector 'Go to Definition' context menu item to navigate through code without source
• Added a new 'Reflector Object Browser'(ROB) into Visual Studio (will eventually offer decompilation by type inside VS)
• Changed the way Reflector shows the version number to display the correct build number
• Bug fixes:
  • "Open in Reflector" context menu not working.
  • XAML Source Code is wrong delimited.
  • Missing end tag in XAML Translation.
  • Code generation for different versions of the same assembly
  • 'Flatten Namespaces' dialog
  • Various decompilation and assembly-loading problems have been fixed – drop us a note if you'd like to know more.

Note: This is not an exhaustive list. This has been compiled from blog and forum posts, but will much more representative from V7.5 onwards.

V7.4

• Improve translation of hitherto less common decompilation cases (e.g. Lambda expressions).
• Improved handling of exceptions.
• Better handling of decompilation cases involving obfuscation.
• A sprinkling of UX improvements that you won't overtly notice, but which will make life more pain-free.

V7.3

• BAML to XAML decompilation in the core product
• Fixed a bug that cause Reflector to hang (on some systems) when opened from the Windows Explorer shell integration.

V7.2

• Fixed the start-up performance problem that was Plaguing V7.2.
• Many decompilation improvements, particularly when dealing with expressions and LINQ queries.
• Backwards compatibility for add-ins build for previous versions of .NET Reflector.
• Many additional bug fixes to cure stability problems, along with a number of UI glitches.
• V7.1
• Improved VB support
• Better handling of resource types
• Lots of improves to C# decomilation
• addition of command line activation /deactivation
• Fixes for 105 other bugs, including a number of stability improvements:
  • VB ByRef argument handled incorrectly.
  • Incorrect do-while-continue generated in C#.
  • Export Assembly Source Code creates an invalid VB project file.
  • "A break point could not be inserted at this location" error.

V7

• Introduction of a tabbed browsing model.
• UI improvements to make features more discoverable.
• Inclusion of Jason Haley's PowerCommands add-in.
• Improves to decompilation, such as handling iterator blocks.