DLL Structure Viewer

VS Code extension that opens DLL, EXE, SO, and other PE/ELF binary files as a graphical structure view.

Opening a DLL in VS Code and browsing its exports, imports, dependency tree, and sections

What it does

Click any binary file in VS Code and it opens automatically in a structured viewer instead of a hex dump.

Supported formats:

Format	Extensions
PE (Windows)	`.dll` `.exe` `.sys` `.ocx` `.drv` `.cpl` `.scr` `.efi` `.mui` `.ax`
ELF (Linux)	`.so` `.so.*` `.ko` `.elf` `.axf`

5 tabs:

Overview: version info (product, company, file version), PDB path and debug records, Authenticode / TLS / .NET presence, resource counts, headers, characteristics and data directories. ELF files show program headers and dynamic info instead.
Exports: searchable table of exported functions and symbols with ordinals, RVAs and bind type
Imports: grouped by source library, expandable, with function names and hints
Dependencies: recursive dependency tree with expand/collapse, search, circular-reference and missing-DLL detection. ELF files show the DT_NEEDED list with full dynamic entries.
Sections: sizes, addresses, offsets and permission flags (READ / WRITE / EXECUTE)

Features

Pure TypeScript PE and ELF parsers (no native dependencies, no external tools)
Handles PE32 (32-bit) and PE32+ (64-bit)
Handles ELF32 and ELF64, little and big endian
Version info from VS_VERSIONINFO, and the original PDB path from the CodeView debug record
Recursive dependency resolution for PE files (searches application directory, System32, SysWOW64, Windows directory, and PATH)
API Set DLL detection (virtual redirections shown separately from missing dependencies)
Names the formats it cannot open (16-bit NE, OS/2 LE/LX, Mach-O, static libraries, WebAssembly) instead of failing with a generic error
Virtual scrolling for binaries with thousands of exports
Adapts to your VS Code theme (dark/light)

Usage

Click any supported file in the explorer sidebar and it opens automatically
Right-click a binary file → View DLL Structure
Ctrl+Shift+P → View DLL Structure → pick any file from the dialog

Install

Search "DLL Structure Viewer" in the VS Code Extensions tab, or:

ext install nhunter0.dll-structure-viewer

Requirements

VS Code 1.85+
Windows recommended for PE dependency resolution (ELF viewing works on any platform)

Want to go deeper?

This extension is free and stays free. For most day-to-day questions about a DLL it is the faster tool, because it is already open in your editor.

Binocular is our desktop binary explorer, built on the same parser family. Here is the honest split.

What both do:

	DLL Structure Viewer	Binocular
Price	Free	Paid, 30-day trial
Runs inside VS Code	Yes	No, desktop app
Exports, imports, dependency tree	Yes	Yes
Version info, PDB path, headers, sections	Yes	Yes
PE and ELF	Yes	Yes

Where Binocular goes further:

	DLL Structure Viewer	Binocular
Authenticode signature	Presence only	Digest and signer verified offline, with an intact / tampered / forged verdict
PE checksum	Value shown	Recomputed and compared
Security hardening (ASLR, DEP, CFG…)	Flags listed	Scored audit, plus `checksec`-style for ELF
Resources	Counts only	Extracted, decoded and previewed
.NET metadata	No	Parsed
C++, Rust, Swift, Objective-C symbol names	Shown mangled	Demangled
Imports by ordinal	Ordinal shown	Name resolved from the target DLL
Imports the target DLL does not export	No	Flagged
Win32 / CRT function prototypes	No	Bundled offline database
Compiler and linker provenance	No	Read from the Rich header
Strings	No	Yes, ASCII and UTF-16
Structure-aware hex view	No	Yes, bytes linked to structures
Binaries hidden inside other binaries	No	Found and carved
Side-by-side binary diff	No	Yes
Mach-O, 16-bit NE, static libraries, WebAssembly	Identified by name only	Parsed

Binocular runs fully offline, which is why its signature verdict rests on what the bytes prove rather than on a certificate chain checked against a trusted root.

If you only need exports, imports and dependencies, stay here. That is what this extension is for, and it is free for good.