Retrieve Source Code from Compiled .NET Program




Background
I found myself in this mess. I wrote a lovely windows service to handle data replication between two SQL Servers. I know this isn't the best way to go about it, but the requirement came in late into the project and the database design wasn't going to support automatic replication provided by SQL Server, so I had to develop this windows service. Unfortunately, I lost the source code and backup in a robbery incident and I'm left with just the compiled version deployed with a client.

Issue
A bug showed up which needed to be fixed, but I didn't have the source anymore. I would have had to go through the stress of re-writing the entire code which took about a month to complete initially if I didn't run into this solution. I'm feeling great right now!

Solution
It happens that there are a couple of projects targeted at de-compiling .NET codes. I found two:
1 .NET Reflector
2. Just Decompile

I tried the .NET reflector and it worked like magic!

Give it a try too and let me hear your testimony. Cheers.

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