I have an application that I would like to decompile into a high-level language C++, C#. Any ideas where I can get a decompiler. I have found a company who claim to have a .NET decompiler but it costs $1099.

Short answer: You can't. You can "decompile" into pretty messy assembly language, but going any higher than that, if there are programs that do it, would result in a garbled mess. For the reasons behind this, search this forum...This is asked reasonably often. I don't know much about .NET...The only way that such a thing would be possible is if .NET applications are never completely compiled...It seems like I heard they have some kind of intermediate byte-code like Java...It may be possible to decompile this. But this won't help you with your standard .exe file. -SN

First read this. Now to apend: You are not going to get a good C++ decompile because OOP can be incredibly difficult to decipher properly. Even when you get the results, you lose a good deal of the abstaction's logic (like the class, variable, and method names) Drivers written in C++ used to be seen as abominations by some hardcore C programmers (it didn't help that the drivers were for wintel devices). Now .NET is a good point to bring up. A satisfactory decompiler should be developed for .NET fairly soon. Java already has several. I am sure a few lurkers of the Mono project are working hard on a good decompiler. A more public one should follow soon. Oddly enough, a virtual machine makes reverse engineering a more practical task, if not a less complicated one.

Hi, To decompile an exe that calls many dlls is very close to doing nothing. The Dlls may be in a different computer, in a different network around the world. The exe may only be a few lines of code while the Dlls are thousands. The Dlls may be the core of the program and they may not be in the exe file. for a simple exe it is ok but Dlls will be a though nut to crack. Good luck!!