Microsoft Debugger Tools

Debugging tools allow experienced users to troubleshoot issues at their source.

Debugging tools produced by Microsoft collect information on programming errors and provide administrators with a means for fixing them. Software packages from Microsoft that benefit from debugging tools are usually technically oriented and range from applications like Visual C++ to Windows itself. Frequently there will be multiple versions of a given debugging program designed for various types of hardware or specific application versions.

Windows SDK Debugger

Microsoft's software developer kit contains a variety of tools designed for debugging in Windows. The various versions of Microsoft Debugging Tools are designed to work with specific operating systems based on the type of processor they support. Windows debugging software currently supports x86, x64 and Itanium processors. These three releases encompass all versions of Windows and are suitable for general debugging applications within the Windows software environment.

MS Visual C++ Debugger

Microsoft's Visual C++ software also includes a debugging tool. Its purpose is to allow programmers to monitor and locate semantic errors by observing the run-time behavior of programs created with Visual C++. Specifically it allows the user to examine code, registers and instructions created by source code made in Visual C++. It also enables programmers to edit variables within a C++ program and view the memory allocated to it.

Debug View for Windows

This program is a free debugging program developed by Microsoft for Windows that allows the user to view debugging information from a local system or machine reachable via TCP/IP. This program displays debugging information in both Win32 and Kernel debugging output types. Its primary function is to directly or remotely collect debugging information for later use on systems that use Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later.

Dr. Watson Debugging Tool

Dr. Watson is a debugging program used in Windows XP to generate data logs about program errors. This information is used by technical support groups to diagnose program errors. The error logs created by Dr. Watson come in two formats. The first is a text file labeled DrWtsn32.log and the second is a binary crash dump file that is accessible from any debugger capable of reading debugging output files.

WinDbg debugger

This program is a utility that adds debugging support for services running in Windows. It allows for remote debugging of code in user-mode and typically requires a host and target machine for debugging in kernel mode. It uses a graphical and text based interface to provide debugging support at the source-code level. It is commonly used by hardware manufacturers and developers who make drivers for Windows.

References

• Microsoft Developer Network: Visual Studio - Using the Debugger
• Microsoft.com: Driver Developer Resources - Debugging Tools for Windows
• Microsoft.com: Windows Sysinternals - Debug View for Windows
• Microsoft Support: Description of the Dr. Watson for Windows (Drwtsn32.exe) Tool
• Microsoft.com: Debugging Tools and Symbols - Getting Started