In our C++ Debugging course, there are several scenarios which require WinDbg and cannot be completed in Visual Studio. They all rely on advanced extension commands available in WinDbg. Some examples:
Tracing opened and closed handles with the !htrace command
Viewing native heap information with the !heap command
Loading and executing code in the debuggee process with the SDbgExt extension commands !loaddll, !remotecall
Inspecting handles to synchronization objects with the !handle command
The sheer power of WinDbg built-in commands and extensions makes it a viable replacement to Visual Studio when doing hard-core debugging. However, the user interface – the tool windows, the source editor, setting up breakpoints, stepping through source, inspecting variables – are no match to the rich Visual Studio environment.
The good news is that as of Visual Studio 11, we’ll be able to use the WinDbg debugging engine (“Windows Debugger”) inside Visual Studio, combining the powerful commands with the convenient interface. Just use the “Windows User Mode Debugger” transport in the Tools | Attach to Process dialog. This also applies to dumps – you can open dumps with the Visual Studio “Minidump Summary” dialog, or you can use the File | Open Crash Dump menu item, the same way as for kernel dumps.
Read more: All Your Base Are Belong To Us
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