Debugging Applications for Microsoft .NET and Microsoft Windows

John Robbins

PUBLISHED BY
Microsoft Press
A Division of Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, Washington 98052-6399

Copyright 2003 by John Robbins

All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Robbins, John, 1964-
Debugging Applications for Microsoft .NET and Microsoft Windows / John Robbins.--2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
Rev. ed. of Debugging Applications, c2000.
ISBN 0-7356-1536-5
1. Application software--Development. 2. Debugging in computer science. 3. Microsoft .NET. 4. Microsoft Windows (Computer file) I. Robbins, John, 1964- Debugging applications. II. Title.

QA76.76.A65R598 2003
005.4'469--dc21 2002045522

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 QWT 8 7 6 5 4 3

Distributed in Canada by H.B. Fenn and Company Ltd.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Acquisitions Editor: Anne Hamilton

Project Editor: Sally Stickney

Technical Editor: Robert Lyon

Body Part No. X08-68737

To my wife, Pam.
Did I tell you how proud I am of you yet today?

In memory of Helen Robbins.
You always made the reunions the place to be. We miss you terribly.

John Robbins

John is a cofounder of Wintellect (www.wintellect.com), a consulting, debugging and education company dedicated to helping companies produce better software faster. At Wintellect, John heads up the consulting and debugging services side of the business and helped debug and tune applications for companies such as eBay, Microsoft, and AutoDesk, as well as many other corporate development shops. He also travels the world teaching his "Debugging .NET Applications and Debugging Windows Applications" course so that developers everywhere can learn the techniques he uses to solve the nastiest software problems known to man. As one of the world's recognized authorities on debugging, John takes an evil delight in finding and fixing impossible bugs in other people's programs.

John is based in New Hampshire, United States, where he lives with his wife, Pam, and the world-famous debugging cat, Chloe. In addition to being the author of the books Debugging Applications for Microsoft .NET and Microsoft Windows (Microsoft Press, 2003) and Debugging Applications (Microsoft Press, 2000), John is a contributing editor for MSDN Magazine, in which he writes the "Bugslayer" column. He regularly speaks at conferences such as Tech-Ed, VSLive, and DevWeek.

Prior to founding Wintellect, John was one of the early engineers at NuMega Technologies (now Compuware), where he played key roles in designing, developing, and acting as project manager for BoundsChecker, TrueTime, TrueCoverage, SoftICE, and TrueCoverage for Device Drivers.

Before he stumbled into software development in his late twenties, John was a paratrooper and Green Beret in the United States Army. Since he can no longer get adrenaline highs by jumping out of airplanes in the middle of the night onto unlit, postage-stamp-size drop zones carrying full combat loads, he rides motorcycles at high rates of speed—much to his wife's chagrin.

Acknowledgments

If you read the first edition of this book or any of my "Bugslayer" columns, or if you heard me speak at a conference or in a class, I can't thank you enough! Your interest in debugging and writing better code is what kept me slogging through the tough times of writing this second edition. I greatly appreciate the e-mail exchanges and discussions we've had. You've taught me a great deal. Thank you.

Five extraordinary people have made this book happen, and I can't sing their praises enough: Sally Stickney (project editor, twice in a row!), Robert Lyon (technical editor), Jean Ross (technical editor), Victoria Thulman (copy editor), and Rob Nance (artist). They took my incoherent ramblings and ugly drawings and made them into the book you have in your hands. The effort they put in was simply tremendous, and there's no way I can ever thank them enough.

As with the first edition, a great group of folks have my eternal gratitude—my "Review Crew." These hearty souls put up with my rough drafts and suggested many absolutely amazing debugging tricks. They represent the best in the business today, and I am humbled by the time they took to help. Here's the lineup: Joe Abbott (Microsoft), Scott Bilas (Gas Powered Games), Kelly Brock (Electronic Arts), Peter Ierardi (Software Evolutions), Spencer Low (Microsoft), Brian Morearty (Intuit), James Naftel (XcelleNet), Christophe Nassarre (Business Objects), Osiris Pedroso (Optimizer Consulting), Andy Pennell (Microsoft), Jeffrey Richter (Wintellect), and Barry Tannenbaum (Compuware). A special thanks to Christophe Nasarre for going way above the call of duty when reviewing!

I am also deeply humbled to be associated with my fellow Wintellectuals who contributed to this book in innumerable ways: Jim Bail, Francesco Balena, Roger Boissonneau, Jason Clark, Paula Daniels, Peter DeBetta, Dino Esposito, Gary Evinson, Dan Fergus, Lewis Frazer, John Lam, Berni McCoy, Jeff Prosise, Brent Rector, Jeffrey Richter, Kenn Scribner, and Chris Shelby.

Finally, the biggest thank you of all goes, as usual, to my wife, Pam. She sacrificed a lot of evenings and weekends while I was working on this book. Even when I was extremely frustrated, she still believed in it and got my spirits back in shape so that I could keep on. Honey, it's done. You can have your husband back.