WinDepends

WinDepends

Windows Dependencies

System Requirements

Windows Operating System:

• Microsoft Windows 10/11 (Including Server variants)
• Windows 8.1 (Not Officially Supported)
• Windows 7 (Not Officially Supported, refer to https://github.com/hfiref0x/WinDepends/issues/11 for more info)

Runtime Frameworks:

• .NET Desktop Runtime 10.0

Project Overview

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 mind for many years but has never had enough time or will to be implemented until now.

Utility Features

• 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 functions exported by that module and which are called by other modules.
• Displays the minimum set of required files, along with detailed information about each file, including full paths, base addresses, version numbers, machine type, debug information, and more.
• Supports delay-load DLLs, ApiSet contracts, bound imports, and Side-by-Side modules.
  • Supported ApiSet schema versions: V2 (Win7), V4 (Win8/8.1), V6 (Win10 and above).
• Drag-and-drop support with a most recently used files list.
• Supports custom configuration, external viewer, external help command, module path resolution, search order and PE loader relocations settings.
• Supports Microsoft Debug Symbols to provide more information on modules exports/imports.
• Supports C++ function name undecorating to provide human readable C++ function prototypes including function names, return types, and parameter types.
• Save/restore sessions to/from files.
• Client-server architecture: Client (WinForms .NET app) provides the GUI; server (C application) handles PE parsing.
• Command-line interface (CLI) for automation and scripting with multiple export formats.

Missing features / Known issues

• Current state: Release Candidate 2. Some Dependency Walker features are unimplemented (e.g., profiling).
• MDI GUI discontinued; launch multiple instances to analyze multiple files.
• Some functionality may not work as expected or be disabled until Release.
• ARM binaries untested in native environments (lack of bare-metal hardware).
• Some limitations stem from Windows OS support.
• Found a bug? Have suggestions? Submit issues or pull requests! We appreciate your input!

Installation and Usage

The WinDepends compiled binaries include:

• WinDepends.exe: Main GUI (client) and CLI
• WinDepends.Core.exe: Server (launched by the client)
• PDB files for both

They can be found in the Release section of this repository.

No installation required. Copy the folder, run WinDepends.exe. To uninstall, close the client/server and delete files.

Command-Line Interface (CLI)

WinDepends supports a command-line interface for automation, scripting, and integration with other tools. The CLI mode is automatically activated when specific command-line switches are detected.

Basic Usage

WinDepends.exe  [options]

Command-Line Options

Note: Many default values are read from the program configuration file. Use the GUI to configure these settings.

Export Formats

Examples

Basic JSON Export

WinDepends.exe C:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe -o notepad.json -f json

HTML Report

WinDepends.exe myapp.exe -o report.html -f html

Kernel-Mode Driver Analysis

WinDepends.exe C:\Windows\System32\ntoskrnl.exe -o ntoskrnl.json -f json -k

Graphviz DOT Export

WinDepends.exe module.dll -f dot -o dependencies.dot

To generate an image from DOT file:

dot -Tpng dependencies.dot -o dependencies.png

Quiet Mode (No Console Output)

WinDepends.exe myapp.exe -o report.json -f json -q

Limited Depth Analysis

WinDepends.exe myapp.exe -o report.json -f json -d 3

Export Without Function Data

WinDepends.exe myapp.exe -o report.json -f json --no-exports --no-imports

Short Paths (File Names Only)

WinDepends.exe myapp.exe -o report.html -f html --short-paths

Combined Options

WinDepends.exe C:\Windows\System32\ntoskrnl.exe -o ntoskrnl.html -f html -k -d 5 --short-paths

CLI Output

When not in quiet mode, the CLI displays progress information:

WinDepends CLI v1.0.0.2511
Analyzing: C:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe
[*] Server has been started: WDEP/1.0 WinDepends.Core
Processing dependencies...
  [1] Analyzing: ntdll.dll
  [2] Analyzing: kernel32.dll
  [3] Analyzing: kernelbase.dll
  ... 
Exporting to Html: notepad.html
Export completed successfully. 

GUI Mode

When no CLI-specific switches are provided, WinDepends runs in GUI mode. You can still pass a file path to open it directly:

WinDepends.exe C:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe

Documentation and Help

• https://github.com/hfiref0x/WinDepends.Docs

Building and Other Information

• Build platform: Microsoft Visual Studio 2026 (latest SDK).
• Client: C# (WinForms, .NET 10.0).
• Server: C (no special SDKs/headers).
• Source code includes: Server tests (WinDepends.Core.Tests) and a fuzzer (WinDepends.Core.Fuzz).
• Modern style toolbar images: https://icons8.com.
• Frameworks/SDKs updated only with LTS releases.

Support Our Work

If you enjoy using this software and would like to help the authors maintain and improve it, please consider supporting us with a donation. Your contribution fuels development, ensures updates, and keeps the project alive.

Cryptocurrency Donations:

BTC (Bitcoin): bc1qzkvtpa0053cagf35dqmpvv9k8hyrwl7krwdz84q39mcpy68y6tmqsju0g4

This is purely optional, thank you!~

License

MIT

Authors

(c) 2024 - 2026 WinDepends Project