What is the difference between UISpy.exe and Inspect.exe? (From Microsoft Windows SDK)

Question

I really want to know how Inspect.exe receives UI elements because it receives much more elements than UISpy (both are available in the Microsoft Windows SDK 7)

1) I think UISpy gets items with the UIAutomation library, right? (Tried using UIAutomation and got exactly the same elements as UISpy)

2) In which library is Inspect.exe used? Since it shows some application user interfaces with MacromediaFlashPlayerActiveX, for example, which I need to get in my own UI-Automation-Application, I hope someone knows something about this.

EDIT: Check also the UI Automation mode, does it also use the UIAutomation library? The strange thing is that in Inspect, it also shows a lot more elves than UISpy.

Thank you in advance

Answer 1

UISpy is a .NET program that uses the .NET UIAutomation assemblies. These assemblies were introduced with the .NET Framework 2.

Inspect is a native program that uses UIAutomationCore.dll (available in the system directory). UIAutomationCore is a native Windows COM library that implements the Windows UI API . This API has been updated by Windows, for example, here is a link to Windows 8+ improvements: What's new in UI Automation?

In .NET assemblies, UIAutomation uses UIAutomationCore.dll internally. However, Microsoft has never updated them to the new features of its own user interface automation API. Therefore, many properties (for example, all ARIA properties that are very useful), templates, events, etc. None if you are using the original .NET UIAutomation.

But in the .NET world, there is still hope, because there is a project here: https://uiacomwrapper.codeplex.com/ , which is a source version compatible with a later version of .NET UIAutomation (in fact, it was written by a Microsoft person, I don’t I understand why they do not publish this in a more formal way and do not update the .NET UIAutomation ...). It defines most of the new features, templates, and interfaces of Windows 8.