New WinDbg debugger available in preview!

30Aug 2017 by richard@baronsoftware.com

New Microsoft debugger WinDbg available in preview!

Debugging Tools for Windows

Preview

Microsoft is excited to announce a preview version of a brand new WinDbg a Windows debugger.  WinDbg has more modern visuals, faster windows, a full-fledged scripting experience, built with the easily extensible debugger data model front and center.

Things to know

  • Installation - You can install the WinDbg Preview from the store if you have Windows 10 Anniversary Update or newer at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/windbg/9pgjgd53tn86 – WinDbg Preview uses some features from the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, so that’s required for now.
  • Feedback - Familiarize yourself a bit with the Feedback Hub!  Microsoft will be using the Feedback Hub to help prioritize what you want Microsoft to work on! The Windows Insider website has a great overview on how to give good feedback – https://insider.windows.com/en-us/how-to-feedback Once you’ve read that, just hit the ‘Feedback Hub’ button on the home ribbon.
  • Questions - Send feedback in the Feedback Hub, or tweet @aluhrs13 for answers. A FAQ on the blog sometime in the upcoming weeks will be posted.
  • Documentation - Microsoft has some early documentation up on MSDN that’s preliminary and subject to change at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=854349, you can give Microsoft feedback or propose edits to that documentation by hitting “Comments” or “Edit” on any page. Keep your eyes on the MSDN blog – https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/windbg – for more updates and tips.
  • Videos - You can view on Channel 9 studio with recorded episodes of Defrag Tools to help explain some of the basics of WinDbg Preview.
    • Defrag Tools #182 – Basics of WinDbg Preview and some of the features
    • Defrag Tools #183 – WinDbg Preview and a quick demo
    • Coming Soon – Defrag Tools #184 – A walk through the scripting features in WinDbg Preview

Restrictions and other things worth noting

  • At this point in the preview, Microsoft is only offering WinDbg Preview through the Windows Store. That means only devices running Windows 10 Anniversary Update can install it.
  • You might hit errors when trying to do something that requires elevation. You’ll have to manually launch WinDbg Preview elevated.
  • The concept of a workspace is going to be changing a lot. A workspace in WinDbg Preview is vastly different from one in WinDbg. The MSDN documentation linked above has more information.