Announcing the XAML Spy February 2014 Update. This update introduces the standalone XAML Spy app, which enables spying of XAML apps outside Visual Studio.
Standalone
The standalone XAML Spy app, previously available in XAML Spy version 1, is now enabled in version 2. Use the standalone app to spy on XAML apps when you do not want or need to use Visual Studio 2012 and 2013.
Like in XAML Spy version 1, the look and feel of the standalone app comes from Modern UI for WPF. The user interface should be familiar to longtime XAML Spy users, but things have been redesigned dramatically. Previously, the various aspects of a connected XAML app were shown in different pages. XAML Spy version 2 uses a Single Page layout where all information of a connected XAML app is availabe in a single XAML Spy Explorer (much like the Visual Studio extension). This results in all information in one place with fewer mouse clicks to get things done.
Also, compared to version 1, the layout of the standalone application has been changed to take better advantage of the available window space. This was one of the major complaints of version 1; too much unused space.
The standalone app offers almost the same feature set as the Visual Studio extension. To use the Visual Studio integration features of XAML Spy, you obviously need to use the Visual Studio extension. Once XAML Spy is enabled for a XAML project, you can spy the app in the standalone XAML Spy app.