Is there any way to use the "Run As" option in Windows XP in conjunction with Visual Studio's debugger, to debug an issue that occurs in my application only when certain users are logged in?
I have ran the application from my machine using "run as" to pretend to be the user in question, and I got the same error as they did. I would like to debug this error and see where and what exactly is causing it. The error occurs specifically when a certain domain user is logged in, and never otherwise.
Is there any script or approach I can take to debug this error; that is too launch the application, as the problem user, and then use the debugger?
Trying to attach to the process didn't work since it was a C# managed process and VS didn't let me attach.
The first two options that come to mind are...
Log onto the machine as the user (simplest approach)
Right-click on the Visual Studio executable and run as that user.
I think that you could edit the .config file to use impoersonation, but I'm not sure if that will result in the app running truly the way it would for the user.
Although with good error handling, the error message itself should be enough to tell you where in the code the problem is... At the very worst, you could compile it in debug mode (so you have all the symbols) and add some global error hanlding and get the exact stack trace...
I use David Strattons second solution (run as Administrator) because my application requires administrator privileges (-> elevated).
Another solution could be to start the application as the user and use "Debug | Attach to process..."
Related
i coded a big project that runs when I open it in Debug or Release Mode, but when i open it without Debugging (ctrl + f5) it crashs. I searched a long time to find the heap error, but didnt find anything. The problem is i need the running .exe of the programm, so i wanted to ask if there is a possibility to link the windows debugger to the .exe so it always starts with it.
If it doesn't crash right away, maybe this helps:
You can run the executable.
Open your solution in visual studio. Make sure it's the same build.
Open the DEBUG menu and click attach to process.
A window will open, listing all processes that are running. Select the executable that's crashing
Click the DEBUG menu again and select Exceptions (ctrl-alt-E)
Make sure the checkbox "Thrown" is checked for Common Language Runtime Exceptions
Now crash your application.. It will halt at the line that causes it.
Also look for environment directives. like #IF DEBUG #END IF. or #IF RELEASE That kind of stuff. Tricked me a couple of times too..
Good luck. Hope this helps!
You can do various things. First make sure you have a "big out try block" in main. i.e. put the main logic in a try can catch exceptions and report these clearly. This probably isn't what's happening in your case.
You can attach a debugger - including Visual Studio, to a running process - see the "Attach to process" option under the debug menu. If it's built with debug symbols, which you can do, even for release code this may help. If it's optimised you may find it difficult though.
Finally, you could generate a crash dump and inspect that after it's failed. See docs on MiniDumpWriteDump. There are several examples on its usage. Or you can install an abort handler: See here. This mentions _set_abort_behavior which if invoked with _CALL_REPORTFAULT will generate a crash dump too.
When running a console application in Visual Studio via "Start without Debugging" (Ctrl+F5), the console remains open at the end of the run asking to
Press any key to continue . . .
thus requiring to activate the window and hit a key. Sometimes this is not appropriate.
Why this matters:
At the very moment I write json serialisation code, my workflow goes like this:
adapt c# code
run a console app that writes file out.json
view out.json in the browser with a json viewer
do this again and again, no need to debug anything, just trimming serialisation and check output is good.
It is workflows like this, where the "press any ..." behavior is hindering as it requires the steps
activate the console window
press key
.
No answers:
Starting the application outside VS in a separate console is not an answer.
Saying, you dont need this.
I'm pretty sure that you cannot affect or change this behavior.
As you mention, it has nothing to do with your application itself, because it doesn't do it when you double-click on the EXE. You only see this effect when you run the app from within Visual Studio without the debugger attached.
Presumably, when you invoke Ctrl+F5, Visual Studio is running your app in a particular way that causes the console window to remain open. I can think of two ways it might be doing it:
%COMSPEC% /k "C:\Path\To\YourApplication.exe"
or
%COMSPEC% /c ""C:\Path\To\YourApplication.exe" & pause"
With either of these, the pausing behavior you're seeing is baked right into the command used to launch your app and is therefore external to your application. So unless you have access to the Visual Studio sources, you're not going to change it. Calling an exit function from your app won't have any effect because your app has already quit by the time that message appears.
Of course, I can't see why it really matters, aside from an issue of curiosity. This doesn't happen when you start the app with the debugger attached, which is what you'll be doing 99% of the time when you launch the app from the IDE. And since you don't ship Visual Studio along with your app, your users are going to be starting the app outside of VS.
In response to the updates made to your question, the best solution would be to change your app so that it is not a console application. This behavior doesn't affect standard Windows applications; when they get closed, they close for good.
If you do not require any output on the console window, then this is very simple to do: just change the "Application type" in your project's properties. A Windows Forms application will work just fine. If you do not display a window (aka form), one will not be automatically created. This is the difference between regular Windows applications and console applications, which always create a console window, whether you need one or not.
If you do need to display output on the console window, you have a couple of options:
Create and use a simple form with a ListBox or ListView control. Each line that you would normally output to the console, you add as a new item to the list control. This works well if you're not using any "advanced" features of the console.
P/Invoke and call the AllocConsole function to create a console that your Windows application can use. You do not need a form for this.
I found a solution that works if you are using python (I could not test anything else).
You need to go to
Tools -> Options -> Python Tools -> Debugging
Uncheck Wait for input when process exits normally.
I hope you can apply this somehow to your problem.
2020 UPDATE : Microsoft has listened.
It also closes the console in "Start Without Debugging" mode ;)
The setting is a little buried, but works :
Well, at least in Visual Studio 2010, typing
Console.ReadKey(true);
Removes the "Press any key to continue....."
According to the VS2019 documentation:
Automatically close the console when debugging stops: Tells Visual Studio to close the console at the end of a debugging session.
It works, but only if you make sure your project starts with the debugger on. This sounds trivial, but I was trying at first with a solution with two projects, one Console one to copy files to use in my app, the other to run the actual app. I set the Console one to Start without debugging because I don't need debugging on it, but that did not close it after it ran. Only when setting it to Start (with debugging) this option worked.
In vs2017 you have to uncheck the python environment setting under the vs-options:
in german: Auf Eingabe warten, wenn der Prozess normal beendet wird
I've been following this guide to debug a Windows Service application.
Basically, I need to attach the Visual Studio debugger to the process started after installing the Windows Service that has been developed. However, VS doesn't allow me attach the debugger to this process as shown in the following picture:
How can I attach the debugger to this process? If I clicked on any of the other processes the Attach button becomes enabled.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
check the checkbox Show processes from all users, then you will see AutomatedReports.exe. Attach that (not AutomatedReports.vshost.exe)
vshost is a host process to help with the debugging. More info on this MSDN Link
Also you need to place the following line in your service code where you want to hit the break point.
System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Break();
The service is probably running on a separate user account. Check the "Show processes from all users" checkbox and attach the debugger to AutomatedReports.exe process.
Also make sure that you are running a Debug build of the service, otherwise, you won't be able to debug a lot.
Have you tried to change the type of the code you are debugging?
Click on "Select ..."
Select "Debug these code types"
You can then select Types like: “Managed (v4.0…)"
I developed a small VBA procedure in MS Access 2003 module (just one public Sub)
The database is locked for me only, nobody else has access to the file.
My code works but there is a small bug I want to find and fix
I need to debug my VBA code. I put breakpoint at the first line of the procedure.
However, when I run this code, it never stops at the breakpoint and never enters to debug mode. Seems like VBA debugger is not working or disabled. I was not able to find any option how it is possible to disable/enable VBA debugger, I supposed it should be always enabled. Now I can debug this code only with the help of putting a lot of message boxes, but it takes a lot of time...
Please see:
ACC2002: Breakpoints Are Ignored in Visual Basic for Applications Code
Enable the Use Special Access Keys startup option.
To do so, follow these steps:
Open the database in which the breakpoint has been set.
On the Tools Menu, click Startup.
In the Startup dialog box, click to select the Use Special Access Keys
check box.
Click OK to close the Startup dialog box.
Close and then reopen the database.
Run the code that contains the breakpoint. Note that execution of the
code pauses at the breakpoint, as you
would expect.
Office 2010 Steps to resolve:
File
Options
Current Database
Make sure "Use Access Special" is checked.
Close and reopen Database.
I work for an orginization that has a custom built Access/SQL Application running in house. We have a problem Explorer.exe throwing an error and crashing.
This is a picture of the crash:
What is the best way to start tracking this problem down and finding a solution ?
Make sure WinDBG is installed, set it up as the default debugger then use Analyze and get a crash dump.
The next time you get that dialog click "OK" to attach in WinDbg
Keep in mind that if you attach a debugger to explorer, then break, that you should not try to do anything in the debugger that invokes a call to explorer or you will deadlock the debugger. This can be surprisingly tricky as it means you cannot open a "File Open" dialog, print, browse to another computer and any number of other things.