Howto: Generating a Crash Dump with adplus
Adplus from the Debugging Tools can be used to get Crash Dumps.
Installing Adplus and the Debugging SDK:
1. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx and download the debugging tools to
match the version of Windows of the machine where the program is running and the processor type (32bit or 64bit)
of the application for which the dump is going to be taken.
2. Install the tools on the machine where you are running the application that is crashing.
Steps to get Crash Dump:
1. After the install, in the directory where you installed the tools, there should
be a script name "adplus.vbs". Open a command prompt and navigate to the directory
where this file is installed.
2. Start the application in question
3. Run the script with the following syntax:
a) By process name.
cscript adplus.vbs -crash -pn <process name> -quiet
Note: So for instance if you had notepad.exe running and you wanted to dump it,
the syntax would be: cscript adplus.vbs -crash -pn notepad.exe -quiet
b) By Process ID:
cscript adplus.vbs -crash -p <process id> -quiet
Note: You can get the process ID from Windows Task Manager or tList (in the debuggers directory).
c) By launching the application:
cscript adplus.vbs -crash -sc <executable file> -quiet
Note: <executable file> is the file path and name of the executable.
4. Wait for the crash
5. A directory will be created in the same directory as the script file. You'll know
it when you see it. It will be a very long folder name. Zip this folder up naming
the zip file as your case number which is in the subject of this email.
Note: Once the crash occurs, you must restart the process. COM+ and MTS apps will automatically restart when their component is called.
