New tool: CmdResc / 30.08.2006
Command line version of ModuleRescue tool is now available.
Debugging the startup code of a service or an out-of-process COM server usually looks like a difficult task,
especially if the service/server is running under a non-administrative user account. But in practice,
there is a number of tools and techniques that can make this task much easier - almost as easy as debugging
an interactive application.
New tool: StartDbg / 01.08.2006
StartDbg is a small tool that simplifies debugging of the startup code of services and COM server applications,
even if they are running under non-administrative user accounts. In brief, it suspends
the service or the COM server process for a predefined period of time, and allows us to attach debugger
to the process while it is suspended. For additional information about the motivation behind creating this tool,
take a look at this article.
Tool update: ClrDump / 17.04.2006
ClrDump has been updated. New features include additional command line parameters for clrdump.exe
(they allow to control the amount of information included into the minidump) and a new API function
(SetFilterOptions). See changelog for detailed information.
New tool: ClrDump (Beta) / 26.02.2006
ClrDump is an experimental set of tools that allow to produce small minidumps of managed applications.
In the past, it was necessary to use full dumps (very large in size) if you needed to perform post-mortem
analysis of a .NET application. ClrDump can produce small minidumps that contain enough information to recover
the call stacks of all threads in the application. It supports .NET runtime versions 1.1 and 2.0.
This article introduces CDB debugger as an effective complement to Visual Studio debugger for various advanced
debugging tasks. It shows how to install and configure CDB, and how to use its command line options and commands
for retrieving useful information about the internal state of the debuggee – without interrupting the main debugging
session in Visual Studio.
These batch files accompany WinDbg the Easy Way article.
They hide the long and complicated CDB commands behind an easy to use interface, and allow the user
to perform otherwise complex tasks quickly and conveniently.
New tool: SymGetEx / 28.11.2005
SymGetEx is an addition to Visual Studio 6.0, which allows Visual C++ debugger to automatically
download symbols from symbol servers. With automatic symbol server support, it is easy to keep
system symbols up-to-date, regardless of the number of system updates and hotfixes installed
on the computer. In turn, good symbols for system DLLs help you get complete and informative
call stacks when debugging your applications.
This article shows how to debug custom filters for unhandled exceptions, and how to ensure
that our filter is always properly registered (which sometimes is not easy to do, especially
if other components of the application want to register their own filters). We will also explore
how the operating system registers and calls custom filters, and what system components may want
to utilize custom filters for their own purposes (and thus interfere with our own filters).
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