Did you Know – You can launch ILDASM Tool from the Visual Studio itself – How ?

The ILDASM (IL  Disassembler ) is a great tool for those who want to take an insight look of IL code. This tool is used to view the assembly content for all the code components.  This tool is installed with your Visual Studio and in a traditional way, can be accessed from the Visual Studio Command Prompt.  In this post, you will learn how you can open the same tool inside Visual Studio by using a shortcut key.

So, in the traditional way, To open the ILDASM

• Open the Visual Studio Command Prompt
• Run ILDASM Command.
• Here are sample screenshots of application opened using ILDASM.

Here are Few Tips that shows the use of ILDASM Tool

• • Difference between Shared project and Class Library Project in Visual Studio 2015
  • Back To Basic – Can we use both C# and VB Project within a single Visual Studio Solution ?
  • Back to Basic – string Vs. String in C#

Here is the problem, whenever you need this tool, ever time you have to open the Visual Studio command prompt and then run it.   What if, if you could do it directly from Visual Studio? 

Well, follow the below steps to configure your Visual Studio to launch the ILDASM tool.

Navigate to Tools –> External tools

Get an hassle-free remote access to your favorite programming tools such as IDE, emulators etc. by loading them onto cloud hosted citrix vdi at an cheap citrix xendesktop pricing with add-ons such as office 365 Enterprise E3 from Apps4Rent

Click on the “Add” button, and then provide Title, Command  ( Which is the physical path of your ILDASM Tool, and then set the Initial Directory as $(TargetDir)

That’s it. You are done ! Click on Apply.

Navigate to Tool menu, and now you should be able to see the “ILDASM (IL Disassembler )” option along with all other external tool.

Click on “ILDASM (IL Disassembler )” to open the Tool directly from the Visual Studio.

isn’t it great ! Let’s me it more easy to access by giving it a shortcut key.

Assigning the Keyboard shortcut for external tools are bit tricky, as they are customizable by end user. So you need to find the position of the external tool in the list of tools that you have and assign the key as appropriate.

In my case, I have it as 4th external tool. So, navigate to Tools –> Options –> Keyboard.

Search for Tools.ExternalCommand4    ( For you it may differ based on the number of tools you have and its index). and then assign key that suits you and is free.

Here I have assigned Ctrl+Alt+I , Ctrl+Alt+L

Now, you should be able to see your external tool with shortcut key and can open the same using keyboard as well.

Hope this helps !

Thanks