Speed up your VS.NET debugging

Groby Unplugged

Faster debugging in VS.NET

September 26th, 2005

More from the “we fix VS.NETâ€? department – in todays episode, we’ll take a
look at the VS.NET debugger and make it faster. Or at least fast enough
so you don’t want to smash your computer waiting for it…

The steps are ordered by ease of discovering the problem, i.e. a log
of my journey. If you aim for more speed, start at the back and work
your way up instead.

Step 1: Disable all watches and breakpoints you don’t desperately need.

Step 2: Disable “Evaluate Expressions�

Step 3: Set the debugger type.

Set it to “Native Only� to debug native code, or “Managed only� if
you have to do managed code. If you absolutely have to debug both, pick
mixed. Under no circumstances leave it set to “Autoâ€? – that slows down
debugging tremendously. It seems to take about a second every single
time you step to re-evaluate if this is managed or unmanaged code – and
it doesn’t always get it right.

Step 4: Fix the annoying startup delay

The solution: Add the line

127.0.0.1 cpvsbuild


to your lmhosts file in Windows\System32\Drivers\etc