Blogs|Mar 12, 2014

Displaying Multiple .NET Objects with WinDBG’s Command Language

While we are getting some nice tools from Microsoft for analyzing our memory, there’s still a lot of gaps where you have to resort to WinDBG and SOS. A perfect example that I’ve run into is looking at variables/types that are in different app domains because the Visual Studio debugging environment has essentially zero support…
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Blogs|Mar 11, 2014

Become a Development Wizard and Win an XBox One!

For the past decade Wintellect has been helping developers like you improve what you do by sharing how we do it with our enterprise customers. We’re not just trainers, but hands on consultants who have spent combined centuries of experience in the trenches shoulder to shoulder with teams to create next generation software using the…
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Blogs|Mar 8, 2014

How Many Secrets do .NET PDB Files Really Contain?

Now that Devscovery is over, it’s time to get back to answering questions about one of my favorite subjects: PDB files! Yes, I lead an extremely exciting life if PDB files set my heart racing. Maybe they have a pill for that. In my blog post on PDBs and remote debugging Patrick asked an interesting…
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Blogs|Mar 8, 2014

Correctly Creating Native C++ Release Build PDBs

In my ongoing discussion of PDB files and debugging, Sa Li had a great question: Should the final release native program also generate the pdb files before being published? If switching on the pdb in link setting, what kind of info would be added into the .exe executable file? I found our program grows a…
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Blogs|Mar 8, 2014

Do PDB Files Affect Performance?

After a detour into Historical Debugging, it’s time to come back to return to answering questions about PDB files. Here’s a question from Justin: Thanks for the great post once again. I was looking forward to your debugging virtual training, but unfortunately it was cancelled. The company I work for is pushing pack against building…
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Blogs|Mar 8, 2014

Keeping Specific PDB Files from Loading in the Debugger

As I’ve discussed, PDB files are wondrous bundles of binary joy. However, loading missing PDB files can quickly become an angst-ridden teenager as you wait what seems like forever on a network timeout for missing symbols. This is especially apparent in Tom’s question: For nearly two years I’ve been searching the Internet for an answer…
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Blogs|Mar 8, 2014

PDB Files: What Every Developer Must Know

Thanks for visiting one of the most popular pieces I’ve ever written! Based on questions I’ve written a few follow up articles you might find useful to extend your PDB knowledge after reading this one. Keeping Specific PDB Files from Loading in the Debugger Do PDB Files Affect Performance? Correctly Creating Native C++ Release Build…
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Blogs|Mar 6, 2014

UX: Disruptive user experiences are industry game changers

I am sure that most of you, if not all, have heard about the notion of a disruptive technology or product. The basic idea of a technology or product being disruptive is that someone comes up with an innovation that transforms a market by making something that everyone accepts to be difficult, expensive, complicated and…
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Blogs|Mar 2, 2014

ProcMonDebugOutput Now on GitHub

A few years ago Mark Russinovich and I put together a feature in SysInternal’s Process Monitor where you can add tracing statements to the log. (Here’s the original post.) The idea was that by seeing your tracing in line with the wonderful Process Monitor I/O reporting, it would be easier to track down problems in…
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Blogs|Feb 23, 2014

ProcDump Post Mortem Switches: Order Matters

This week I’m working behind the “Great Firewall” in China and Twitter is blocked by the Chinese government, but my blog is not. I would have tweeted this but instead dear reader, you get the complete back story along with the debugging challenge on how I figured out the problem. While working with a customer…
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