#115 – Downloading All .NET 4 Source Code

Post #90 explained how to step into .NET 4 source code from Visual Studio 2010.  If, you’d rather just view the source code without having to actually step into it from the debugger, you can download all .NET 4 source code directly.

Go to the following site: http://referencesource.microsoft.com/netframework.aspx

You’ll see a list of all source code components that you can download.  Look for .NET 4 towards the bottom.

Click on the Download link and then run the resulting .msi (installer) file that is downloaded.  Specify a location for the source code.

You’ll see Source and Symbols directories.  You can navigate down into the Source directory to find the source code that you’re interested in.  For example, you can find the source code for the System.Array class at:

\Source\.Net\4.0\DEVDIV_TFS\Dev10\Releases\RTMRel\ndp\clr\src\BCL\System\Array.cs\1305376