How to Debug .net applications without Visual Studio

.net debugging remote-debugging
ljs picture ljs · May 4, 2009 · Viewed 20.5k times · Source

Please let me know if this has been asked before, I wasn't able to find any questions on this subject:-

I need to determine the inner exception of an exception thrown on a computer with the .net framework installed but not Visual Studio (nor is it possible to install Visual Studio on the computer). How can I examine this inner exception?

Note a few points:

  • It's no good running Visual Studio from another computer as the problem lies actually on the box; it's a heisenbug of the first order.
  • I know WinDbg is an option, however I need this done quickly and unfortunately I imagine the time taken to learn WinDbg sufficiently to get this done will outweigh the time I have - however if anybody has step-by-step instructions on this I would be interested.
  • I have full admin permissions and can install anything that isn't too big (the problem with installing VS is that there is insufficient hard drive space).

Thanks!

Answer

Sam Saffron picture Sam Saffron · May 4, 2009

Have you had a look at MDBG? It may take you a while to get around but is fairly straight forward.

Also DbgClr may be an option, I think its still supposed to be in the SDK somewhere.

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