Visual Studio debugger tips & tricks for .NET

Answer 1

.load sos in the Immediate window :)

Answer 2

Create a Macro for attaching to a process and assign to an unused keyboard shortcut. Much faster than going: debug -> attach to process -> search for the process in the processes list ->...

Answer 3

Two in-code tricks:

I really like the System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThrough attribute; you can attach it to a class, method or property to make VS not enter the code by default when debugging. I prefer it over the DebuggerHidden attribute as it will still allow you to put breakpoints in the ignored code if you really need to debug it.

Another (sometimes) useful call is System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Launch(); when the execution hits it, you will be presented with the "select a debugger" dialog, and a debugger will start. A bit rude, but useful with particularly nasty to attach to processes, like a process that gets spawned by another and immediately executes your code.

Answer 4

I always make sure to set the "Name" property on new threads that I create. That way, when I'm debugging I can more easily identify different threads.

Answer 5

Of course, check out the VS tip of the day:

http://blogs.msdn.com/SaraFord/

Answer 6

Conditional breaks are very useful if you have code that is repeated a lot but only fails under a specific set of conditions, such as code in a loop, methods called from a loop, or methods called from multiple threads. Put the break statement at the line of interest and set its conditions to match the error case. (There is a quick example here.)