I've had loads of people ask me the question: "Is there any way to step into a function without having to bother stepping into all the properties that might have to be executed as parameters before getting to what I'm really interested in?" The...

Recently a coworker of mine lost the symbol file for one of his binaries. Because he needed to debug that binary, getting those symbols back was of utmost importance since debugging without them is near impossible. He decided to try and use a symbol file...

More fun with labelling breakpoints Back in my first Debugger tips post I provided some macros that allow you to tag a set of breakpoints with a string so that they can easily be enabled or disabled from the command window. Well, just for kicks, I...

Create a one-step operation to attach to a process If you find your debugging session typically involves attaching to a specific process you can save yourself some time in VS 2005 by creating a macro to do it for you. Choose Tools->Macros...

Making native array viewing easier with Enhanced DataTips I'm back from vacation, and have a new found respect for people (mostly US wives/women, I presume) that slave all day over preparing a Thanksgiving meal and then cleaning it all up. Yep, I did...

Spending the week on vacation. I'll return with more tips next week! Happy Thanksgiving!

Noisy breakpoints!...

Moving tracepoints and breakpoints around...

Create an Object ID to keep track of an object while debugging...

Enhanced DataTips have a context menu...

Keyboard navigation and transparency with Enhanced DataTips...

Use tracepoints to log execution flow and even modify it!...

Use format specifiers or type-casting in Enhanced Datatips....

Manage your breakpoints via a group names...

Given that my job here at MS is that of Debugger UI guy, I thought it would be nice to regularly post some of my favorite (or other people's favorite) tips, tricks and tools I either use, or have written. Since these days I'm a regular user of Visual...

I'd like to think I was mildly missed! But if not, c'est la vie. In case anybody wonders, I want to just mention that the past year has been a year of radical upheaval and ultimate change for me which is basically why my blogging activities suddenly stopped...

During a recent UI meeting here at work, one of our PM's (Habib Heydarian) mentioned that while at Tech Ed, he was shocked at just how many developers don't have an understanding of the terms used while debugging, let alone how to use a debugger effectively...

I just have to vent! The mechanism for adding a new post to my blog via the embedded “HTML” editor is awful. It's far easier for me to launch FrontPage (the absolute latest shipping version, mind you), type it there then just paste it in here...

I am part of an email distribution list here at MS that is focused on the topic of User Interface Design. Recently, one of the members posted a question to the list asking for input and/or examples of how the task of browsing a physical magazine might...

Andy has recently posted a question: Should debugging windows be accessible under the Views top-level menu item or under the Debug top-level menu item? Or both? Please respond at: http://blogs.msdn.com/andypennell/archive/2004/06/17/158597.aspx

In case I've whetted your appetite with Enhanced Datatips , JoeN (one of our senior Visual C# PMs) posted an article detailing many of the other new and very cool features of Whidbey (aka Visual Studio 2005).

If you attended the recent Tech Ed in San Diego, you would have had a chance to see some of the new whiz-bang debugger features that Whidbey will ship with. One feature that is very near to me (because I wrote it) is the new, much improved and useful...

I converted a couple of my initial posts to articles. If you've seen them great! Though, I did add a little blurb about a neat trick to the end of the 'Idiot's Guide'. Idiot's Guide to Creating and Using VS Macros Breakpoint Groups

One of the recent requests in my post Wanted: Debugger User Interface Feedback was to allow the font of the watch window to be different from that of other toolwindows in Visual Studio like it was in version 6.0. See the post for more details. I...

In the past, we have relied on internal dogfooding, external alphas and betas, and usability studies of work-in-progress to get feedback that can be used to improve the feature before being released to the public. We are still doing that more than ever...