Wyatt Says...

/// <summary>Helper function to attach a debugger to the running service.</summary>
[Conditional("DEBUG")]
static void DebugMode()
{
    if (!Debugger.IsAttached)
        Debugger.Launch();

    Debugger.Break();
}

''' <summary>Helper function to attach a debugger to the running service.</summary>
<Conditional("DEBUG")>
Shared Sub DebugMode()
    If Not Debugger.IsAttached Then
        Debugger.Launch()
    End If

    Debugger.Break()
End Sub

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Comments

• Jake - May 6th, 2012 at 8:53 pm

  Wow that is so useful! I’ve been Debug.WriteLine() forever and its a pain.

• RdpGuard - May 7th, 2012 at 2:05 am

  Pretty elegant solution, thank you! :)

  We have used the following VS macros:

      Sub StartServiceAndAttach()
  
          ' build solution
          DTE.ExecuteCommand("Build.BuildSolution")
  
          ' start Service
          Dim ProcessProperties As New ProcessStartInfo
          ProcessProperties.FileName = "net.exe"
          ProcessProperties.Arguments = "start MyService"
          ProcessProperties.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Maximized
          Dim myProcess As System.Diagnostics.Process = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessProperties)
  
          ' wait when it will be started
          myProcess.WaitForExit()
  
          ' attach to the process
          Try
  
              Dim dbg2 As EnvDTE80.Debugger2 = DTE.Debugger
  
              Dim trans As EnvDTE80.Transport = dbg2.Transports.Item("Default")
  
              Dim dbgeng(1) As EnvDTE80.Engine
  
              dbgeng(0) = trans.Engines.Item("Managed")
  
              Dim proc2 As EnvDTE80.Process2 = dbg2.GetProcesses(trans, "MACHINE-NAME").Item("my-svc.exe")
  
              proc2.Attach2(dbgeng)
  
          Catch ex As System.Exception
  
              MsgBox(ex.Message)
  
          End Try
  
      End Sub
  

• Martin Page the Documentation Doctor - May 7th, 2012 at 5:32 am

  I actually followed a link over to see if you had any obvious documentation needs – bit of a waste of time, I think! This is all humblingly good stuff. I may blog about this later.

  M

• Wyatt O'Day - May 7th, 2012 at 10:59 pm

  Thanks, Martin.

• mark flatt - August 27th, 2012 at 7:35 pm

  you are the man, saved me hours, thank you

• Adam - November 3rd, 2013 at 9:53 am

  For anybody wanting to use this method on Windows 8, it won’t work without a registry tweak. Please check this forum post for info:

  http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/69842-Debugging-your-SOE-on-Windows-8

• Wyatt O'Day - November 3rd, 2013 at 5:33 pm

  Thanks, Adam.

• Hitesh - November 7th, 2013 at 4:26 am

  Hey Wyatt… I am new to windows services. i have just created a windows service in vb.net in vs2005. now i want to debug this service and check whether its working or not. so would you please explain me the trick how to do this? and where to apply these code?

• Doug - December 2nd, 2013 at 4:09 pm

  Man, I hate it when someone just posts a snippet of code and not a full fledged example.

• Wyatt O'Day - December 2nd, 2013 at 4:20 pm

  Doug, that’s all the code you need. That function (DebugMode() ) and calling the function somewhere in your service.

  I’m not going to write your service for you.

  If you want an example C# or VB.NET service, then google it. There are about a billion examples already.

• Doug - December 3rd, 2013 at 8:54 am

  I didn’t ask you to write it. I just think it needs to show a more detailed example, thanks

• Jairo - March 25th, 2015 at 4:53 pm

  Good and simple, thanks a lot for this Wyatt. I don’t know why the old way stopped working, I built a lot of Windows Services on .Net 2.0 and I could simply attach my code to the service process and I could debug it from there, I guess I missed that part when moving from 2.0 to 4.0.

• Walter - April 25th, 2018 at 4:22 am

  Hi Wyatt,

  thanxs for the article, in fact its the only one i could find in google, so much too other people compaining.

  I just do have a questions please.

  You say add the function anywhere and call it, I placed the code

  If Not Debugger.IsAttached Then
  Debugger.Launch()
  End If

  Debugger.Break()

  directly in the start sub of the service, but it would not even compile it, and tell me that it is a service blabla,

  do you mind giving me a hint where i could place this otherwise?

• Wyatt O'Day - April 25th, 2018 at 9:22 am

  but it would not even compile it, and tell me that it is a service blabla,

  My guess is that fixing the error (or at least telling me what the error is) will solve your problem.