PDB remains open after debugging (Windows 10, Visual Studio)

Question

Our previous development systems used Windows XP and Windows 7. Debugging C++ DLLs from Visual Studio worked great.

A recent move to Windows 10 has resulted in an annoying problem. We can debug once (using F5), but the 2nd time results in a linker error:

MyProg fatal error LNK1201: error writing to program database 'MyProg.pdb'

Trying to delete the .pdb manually in Explorer while Visual Studio is still open results in the error:

The action can't be completed because the file is open in devenv.exe

It doesn't matter whether you hit a breakpoint or not. Just start debugging once results in the problem. Re-starting Visual Studio resolves the issue (in the sense that you can debug once, but then you get the problem again).

If relevant:

• x86 Visual Studio 2003.NET
• targeting another x86 application
• x64 Windows 10 Pro v1803

Answer 1

After hunting around for several hours some related, but unanswered, questions were found. Following suggestions in this MSDN article, along with some debugging of my own, this solution works:

• Download FreePDB, a script written by MSDN user Toni76 (thanks Toni!)
• Copy this script to a local folder (say C:\Apps\FreeDPB)
• Download the latest version of SysInternals tool Handle (currently v4.21)
• Copy handle.exe to C:\Apps\FreeDPB
• NB! From the command line, run handle /? once. This is to agree the EULA. The script will not work if you skip this step!
• Open Visual Studio, then Project > Properties > Build Events > Pre-Build Event
• Set Command Line to C:\Apps\FreeDPB\freepdb $(ProjectName)
• Set Description to Delete lock on PDB

...and now you don't need to restart Visual Studio to debug a 2nd time!

From comments, this works with multiple versions of Visual Studio on multiple versions of Windows.

Update

A more radical solution is described here which involves replacing a core Visual Studio DLL (NatDbgDE.dll). This solution only works for Visual Studio 2003 SP1, though.