Advertising:
Report thank you
thank you
Load the EXE into Dede. Step 2: The "Forms" tab instantly shows MainForm contains TButton , TEdit , TListBox . Step 3: Click on Button1 . Dede lists its OnClick handler at address 0x0042A1B0 . Step 4: Switch to "Procedures", locate TMainForm.Button1Click , and view the disassembly:
Short for (though often stylized as DEDE ), this tool was the gold standard for peering into the opaque world of compiled Delphi applications. While modern Delphi versions (10.x, 11.x, 12.x) have introduced new compilation tricks, Dede remains a fascinating piece of software archaeology. Delphi Decompiler Dede
If you’ve been in the Windows reverse engineering or legacy software maintenance space for more than a decade, one name still echoes through forums and tool libraries: Dede . Load the EXE into Dede
Want a follow-up post comparing Dede vs IDR vs Ghidra for Delphi? Let me know. Dede lists its OnClick handler at address 0x0042A1B0
This has saved many commercial projects from extinction. Dede is not a silver bullet :
Today, it sits on the shelf like an old oscilloscope – not something you’d use for new work, but when you encounter a dusty Delphi 5 binary from two decades ago, Dede still lights up and whispers the secrets of TForm and TButton .
In this post, we’ll explore what Dede is, how it works, why it was revolutionary, and where it stands in 2025. Dede is a static analysis tool specifically designed for binaries compiled with Borland Delphi (versions 2 through 7, and partially 2005-2010). Unlike a traditional disassembler (like IDA Pro or Ghidra) that shows raw x86 assembly, Dede understands Delphi’s Form DFM resources , RTTI (Run-Time Type Information) , and VCL (Visual Component Library) structures.