Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Dependency Walker

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Original author(s)
  
Steve Miller

Initial release
  
before 1997

Type
  
object code analyzer

Developer(s)
  
Microsoft

Operating system
  
Microsoft Windows

Stable release
  
2.2.6000 Built:October 29, 2006 (2006-10-29) 2.2.10011 Built:October 29, 2015 (2015-10-29) from wdk10

Dependency Walker or depends.exe is a free program for Microsoft Windows used to list the imported and exported functions of a portable executable file. It also displays a recursive tree of all the dependencies of the executable file (all the files it requires to run). Dependency Walker was included in Microsoft Visual Studio until Visual Studio 2005 (Version 8.0) and Windows XP SP2 support tools. The latest version v2.2.10011 is not available on dependencywalker.com website but is included in the Windows Driver Kit v10

As of Windows 7, Microsoft introduced the concept of Windows API-sets, a form of DLL redirection. Dependency Walker has not been updated to handle this layer of indirection gracefully, and when used on Windows 7 and later it will likely show multiple errors. Dependency Walker can still be used for some application level debugging despite this.

Basic features

  • Runs on Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7, 8 and 10
  • List all dependent modules (portable executables)
  • Supports 64-bit and Windows CE executables
  • Detects if the module is programmed in C or C++
  • Detects modules not listed in the import address table
  • Color coding of the list to help highlight problems (broken dependencies are highlighted in red)
  • Traces dependencies recursively, and lists dependencies of all modules in a tree view
  • References

    Dependency Walker Wikipedia