Debugging

I seem to be gradually accumulating Windows debugging tricks and need somewhere to keep track of them.

Small tricks and bits

Days with a Debugger

• Tracing an out of memory crash
• Easy custom visualizers for Visual Studio
• Adding a custom auto expand visualizer to Visual Studio
• Dodging a deliberate Heisenbug

Useful Websites, Articles and Links

• Raymond Chen’s blog Old New Thing especially
  • The advantages of knowing your x86 assembler.
  • Identifying an object whose underlying DLL has been unloaded.
  • Using the “gu” command to find infinite loops.
  • Calling functions and methods within the debugger.
  • Why does the debugger show me the wrong function.
• The Microsoft Advanced Windows Debugging and Troubleshooting blog
  • Setting up remote debugging assistance
• Jim Griesmer’s Gooey Bugs blog
• John Robbin’s blog
• Tess Ferrandez blog “If broken it is, fix it you should”: lots of information on debugging .Net with WinDBG.
• Robert Kuster’s thematically grouped WinDBG command list - keep this on your desk if you use WinDBG.
• Debugging 32-bits apps on 64-bits machines in WinDBG
• Finding where an unmanaged exception was thrown.
• Steve Johnson’s SOSEX extension for debugging .net

Books You Should Have On Your Shelf

• Advanced Windows Debugging by Hewardt and Pravat
• Debugging Microsoft .NET 2.0 Applications by John Robbins.
• The pre-release chapters of Advanced .NET Debugging also by Mario Hewardt suggest it is going to be excellent.