greggm's WebLog

Debugging a .NET Framework 2.0/3.0/3.5 class library with VS 2010

A number of people have had difficulty debugging a .NET Framework 2.0/3.0/3.5 class library that...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 06/08/2010

Notes from debugging a managed memory leak

Recently, I spent a while digging into a managed memory leak. This is a pretty well-worn blog topic,...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 10/29/2009

Tracing calls to QueryInterface on a managed object

To date, one difficulty with implementing COM interfaces in managed code is that until now there has...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 07/23/2009

What to do with a machine that doesn't support Hyper-V...

In my little corner of the world, during the last year (give or take) Hyper-V went from something...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 05/12/2009

Disabling script debugging in VS 2008 + IE8

Visual Studio 2008 shipped with a feature to automatically enable script debugging when starting IE8...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 04/06/2009

Script debugging broken in VS 2005 after installing IE8

[Note: This post has been updated with new information] There is currently an issue in VS 2005 after...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 04/01/2009

Exceptions Dialog explained (or what does 'User-Unhandled' mean)

We recently had some questions on our internal Visual Studio Debugger forum about the exceptions...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 12/31/2008

Attaching a debugger at startup

Sometimes you need to debug a process, and you need to attach the debugger right away, but you...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 09/12/2008

Writing a script debugger without using the MDM

Today’s blog is about writing your own script debugger. Visual Studio has provided ‘Script’...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 06/09/2008

Reporting a Visual Studio crash to Microsoft

Background Sometimes Visual Studio crashes. It would be nice if this wasn’t the case, but...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 05/22/2008

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta

In case you missed it, Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta has been...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 05/16/2008

Visual Studio Remote Debugger Service user account requirements

I was asked today -- Why does the Visual Studio Remote Debugger Service need to be run as an...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 05/15/2008

Exception Filter Inject

Recently I have found the need to have an exception filter in some C# code that I have written....

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 04/21/2008

Advice on creating a code generator

I have been spending some time recently creating a custom code generator that outputs C++ and C#...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 03/28/2008

Automatically reading source files from TFS

I recently stumbled upon a blog that explained how to use the Source Server technology to enable the...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 03/19/2008

The debugger team is expanding

The Visual Studio Debugger team is expanding, and is looking for candidates. If you are interested...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 03/17/2008

Debugging WCF Services in Visual Studio 2008

One of the new features that we added in Visual Studio 2008 was debugger enhancement for Windows...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 03/17/2008

Hints on using Just-In-Time debugging with Windows Vista

Just-In-Time debugging is trickier on Windows Vista than on previous operating systems. Today I am...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 07/17/2007

Debugging Windows Error Reporting

If you’re a software developer, chances are that you have written an application, and this...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 05/24/2007

Analyzing Tracepoint Output

Last week I had this displeasure of tracking down a fairly unpleasant reference counting bug. I...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 05/07/2007

Setting conditional breakpoints using object ids

In native code, its sometimes useful to set a breakpoint condition so that a breakpoint will only...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 01/17/2007

Tracking down native leaks

I have been spending some time looking at native memory leaks recently, and I decided to blog about...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 01/16/2007

One cause for 'The debugger is not properly installed' in Visual Studio 2002/3

Way back in 2004 I posted an article talking about the 'The debugger is not properly installed' in...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 10/18/2006

My favorite Vista API – TaskDialogIndirect

Recently I have been doing a bunch of work to have the debugger better support Windows Vista....

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 09/11/2006

A debugging tale

In my opinion, one of the best feelings in life is when you finally solve a great bug. I have a...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 04/17/2006

Interop debugging and mscorwks.pdb

If you are doing interop debugging (managed+native debugging), I strongly recommend that you have...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 04/04/2006

Windows Vista: User Account Control and the Debugger

As far as the debugger is concerned, the biggest feature in Windows Vista is user account control....

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 03/30/2006

Using IL exception filters for a better debugger experience

Visual Studio 2005 brings with it a new technology -- Just My Code. One nice feature that comes with...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 03/23/2006

Debugging Classic ASP Code

Since shipping Visual Studio 2005, we have heard from some users complaining about the fact the...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 03/15/2006

Retail debugging technique -- #pragma optimize

Retail debugging is one of those things that is both painful and necessary. To avoid repeating...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 01/23/2006

Be careful of what you checkin

If I had to give one piece of advice as to what you should do to be a good developer, it’s this: be...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 01/05/2006

Explaining 'The Binding Handle Is Invalid'

Today I want to try to give more insight into the 'Binding Handle Is Invalid' problem that a number...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 01/04/2006

@clk

For several releases now, the native debugger has supported a pseudo-register @clk. @clk can be used...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 12/24/2005

Parental Leave

Monday was my first day back at work after twelve weeks of parental leave. It was a wonderful...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 12/22/2005

Process listing APIs on Windows

There are a bunch of different process listing APIs on Windows. They all have their plusses and...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 11/10/2005

Dvorak and why you shouldn't bother

Last week Jensen Harris had a pro-dovak post. I am on parental leave, and just got around to reading...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 10/25/2005

Reflections on 64-bit

We are getting really darn close to shipping Visual Studio 2005. Visual Studio 2005 is the first...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 09/30/2005

Don't compare file names

Yesterday I talked about writing a file name comparison algorithm. There are certainly some code...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 09/22/2005

Comparing file names in native code

There are new recommendations for comparing strings with the 2.0 .NET Framework (see...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 09/21/2005

Debug.ListCallStack /AllThreads

One little known feature of the Visual Studio debugger is how to list the callstacks of all threads....

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 08/02/2005

Finding COM pointers on the stack

Back in December, I had one post about optimized code debugging. Today I wanted to follow up, and...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 08/01/2005

Debugging 'Last Error' problems

On a few occasions I have run into problems where some Windows API was returning a 'strange' error...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 07/05/2005

Job openings on the Visual Studio Debugger Dev Team

I have been a developer for the Visual Studio debugger for five and a half years now. We currently...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 06/06/2005

Making Wrong Code Produce Compiler Errors

Joel, of Joel on software wrote an interesting blog (Making Wrong Code Look Wrong) last week that I...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 05/17/2005

Crash during start debugging with Whidbey Beta 2

There is a crash that can occur when you start debugging with Whidbey Beta 2 on a machine that still...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 05/02/2005

Visual Studio 2005 and the Windows Firewall

We put a lot of work into Visual Studio 2005 to make remote debugging easier. One advance was to...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 02/27/2005

Inside 'Image File Execution Options' debugging

There are times that you need to debug the startup code for an application, but something else is...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 02/21/2005

Yet more information for 'The debugger is not properly installed'

Back in April of last year I blogged about solving some of the reasons why people run into 'debugger...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 02/15/2005

Report exceptions, don't ignore them!

Here is a great example of code that you should never write: __try { RunCode(); } __except...

Author: Gregg Miskelly Date: 01/24/2005

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