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Recently migrated from VS2010 to 2015. Now when I pause a running app to work on it, I get this very annoying "Break Mode" page with "The application is in break mode". Well, no shoot Sherlock, I pressed pause. I know its in break mode. The page is annoying and takes me away from the code I was going to work on completely unnecessarily.

I didn't get this annoying page in 2010. I may have some setting switched back then on 2010 but too long to remember.

Is there a way to disable this silly break mode page in VS2015?

Wolfie
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  • You did, when the code paused in third-party code without debug symbols or source – Panagiotis Kanavos Mar 24 '16 at 15:33
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    The odds that you'll break the program *exactly* on a line of your source code is never very good. So you get this page to remind you that it can't show anything meaningful. Look at the call stack, select the correct thread, favor setting your own breakpoint instead. – Hans Passant Mar 24 '16 at 15:41
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    I am not asking where it paused. I am not asking how to find where it paused. I am not expecting to pause at a specific line. Don't care about any of that. I am asking how to turn the break popup window off. I simply want it to pause, no BS, just pause. I don't want a pop up page telling me I just paused. I might have turned something off in 2010, can't remember. I would like to find that setting in 2015 and turn it off again. I don't want the break page at all. Period. – Wolfie Mar 24 '16 at 16:17
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    This is what I am trying to get rid of: http://oi67.tinypic.com/hrnbfd.jpg – Wolfie Mar 24 '16 at 16:26
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    I like how Microsoft likes to assume that their customers are stupid.. and we ARE stupid in a way, for using Microsoft products. They assume that we're stupid for using their products, so they treat us accordingly. – user275801 Nov 30 '16 at 00:13
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    This page is of no use. Anyone who suggest otherwise is a shill for the Microsoft company. – JSON Aug 25 '17 at 15:20
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    I don't have enough reputation to post this as an Answer, so I have to post it as a comment here. Hopefully this helps, it worked for me in more than one project: - Open the Exception Settings - Navigate to "Managed Debugging Assistants" - Uncheck "ContextSwitchDeadlock" This appears to disable the Break Mode page by ignoring the ContextSwitchDeadlock exception. The other option would be to catch the exception in your code. YMMV. – weasel5i2 Jan 31 '20 at 18:30
  • @weasel5i2, this didn't work for me. – Dan H. Feb 20 '20 at 14:52

7 Answers7

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The best solution I've found so far is to drag the "Break Mode" tab to the bottom of your screen (so it is attached like a toolbar window) and make it as small as possible. Then when you pause and get this screen it at least doesn't cover your existing view.

Code Commander
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    Great solution, i just dragged it to the call stack pane – Chris Marisic May 24 '16 at 15:01
  • Yeah this is a great solution! –  Jun 27 '16 at 21:29
  • Awesome solution! This has been bugging me for ages! – Sean Thorburn Aug 27 '16 at 11:34
  • You're the best! For a year i've been annoyed by this tab! Thanks :D – Jet Chopper Apr 12 '17 at 13:01
  • You could also drag it to the side and shrink the side pane. – thecoolmacdude Apr 13 '17 at 13:38
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    I am not able to continue from this stage it always stop after it goes to break mode, I am developing Xamarin app. – Rahul Sonone Sep 14 '17 at 09:39
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    What a simple solution to something that's been driving me crazy! I ended up dragging mine to the side panel on the left and setting it to "Auto Hide" this way it is as unobtrusive as it can be. – Probably Feb 27 '18 at 16:03
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    For the other commenters, saying *'Great Solution!'*, I hate you. This is not a great solution. This is like using the `
    ` tag to clear floats. This is like using `eval("decodeURIComponent('%40')")` to obfuscate an email. Thank you for the solution Code Commander. I appreciate it and it makes my life easier. It is not a ***great solution*** though.
     – dgo Dec 17 '18 at 16:59
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There is a free extension to resolve this issue: Disable No Source Available Tab available for from the VS Market Place.

This small extension will prevent the tool window with title "No Source Available" from appearing in Visual Studio, and preserve the focus on the currently active tab.

Atchoum
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  • Why the down vote though? Trying to be helpful gets you a downvote now??? – Atchoum May 01 '17 at 02:34
  • I am not the person who downvoted your answer, I simply came across it while performing review tasks. – SWalters May 01 '17 at 02:37
  • Got it. Sorry.. Don't understand. It is a great solution. One I had been looking for so long anyway, – Atchoum May 01 '17 at 02:41
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    Well for what it's worth I just gave you an upvote since you had edited the question to include more info. – SWalters May 01 '17 at 02:46
  • If only Microsoft was watching this thread they'd see how important it was to not have that window appear... It's at 18k downloads so far. – vr_driver Feb 28 '18 at 07:36
  • Well maybe MS were watching as the "No Source Available" window no longer appears in VS2019. However, just as annoying is the insistence of the debugger on breaking at Application.Run(whatever) in Main when the app is idle, rather than where I last was in the text editor. The description of the extension above says that it "preserves the focus at the currently active tab", which I took to mean "where I was last working before hitting Break". Does anyone know how to make the debugger break to this position ? – jon morgan Nov 12 '21 at 14:58
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Under Tools → Options → Debugging → CHECK "Use Managed Compatibility Mode"

Vadim Ovchinnikov
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Raship Saiyed
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    This switches between debugger engines, does nothing to solve this issue. – Kabwla-TwoLips May 02 '18 at 13:01
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    You should probably not do that: _Enabling Managed Compatibility Mode will disable many features that depend on the current debugger implementation to operate. It is our goal in the future to completely remove the legacy engine from the product and hence remove the options discussed later in this blog post._ [msdn blog link](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/devops/2013/10/16/switching-to-managed-compatibility-mode-in-visual-studio-2013/) Check @CodeCommander s Solution below – bnu Jun 27 '18 at 07:20
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I had this annoying problem, too and did not realise, that i turned the Exception Settings to "Break on all exceptions". Then there where some Exceptions in external Code, where the debugger stopped, but I could not see the code, as it was in a Framework. Pretty annoying.

To reset Exception Settings in VS2017:

ctrl+al+e -> right click on the opening window -> reset to defaults

Maybe this helps someone =)

modmoto
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  • the question is when you click pause and it is VERY ANNOYING! The developer who wrote that piece of code well I am trying to be nice.. – Ken Aug 18 '19 at 04:59
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Dont use this primarily. Use atchoum's solution. its the BEST.

Another option:

I like to use the keyboard instead of the mouse, so I invoke a pause with CTRL + ALT + BREAK(or you can click pause) regardless this causes the annoying "Break mode" window to appear

When it comes up and assuming you still have the CTRL + ALT + BREAK keys held down- Just release the ALT and BREAK keys and hit the F4 key

This will close the annoying break mode window and take you to the page and spot your had the cursor on before you pressed the break combination of CTRL + ALT + BREAK.

So... in one foul swoop press
CTRL + ALT + BREAK (to enter break mode) and then
CTRL + F4 (to close the stupid "break mode" window and place the cursor where you were before you hit CTRL + ALT + BREAK )

Jared McCracken
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I was having same problem and was tired of searching for a solution but, in end, I found out there was one error in my code at specific form; after changing that code I didn't got any break mode type error.

CODE WHEN ERROR (Break mode) OCCURRED

Private Sub TextBox1_TextChanged(sender As Object, e As KeyPressEventArgs) Handles TextBox1.TextChanged

CODE WHEN ERROR (Break mode) DIDN'T OCCUR

Private Sub TextBox1_TextChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles TextBox1.TextChanged

May be this can help so please check where and when your code triggers something.

Adrian Mole
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dvijparekh
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To Disable "Break Mode" page go to:

Tools --> Options --> Debugging --> General

Uncheck the checkbox of "Enable Just My Code"

Polyvios P
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