2

I want to remote debug an executable that is running on a Windows XP machine. This machine does not have Visual Studio installed. I am running Visual Studio .NET from another machine on the network. (I'm easily able to remotely debug other XP machines which have Visual Studio .NET installed).

I located the remote debugging tool (msvsmon.exe in this case) copied the folder to a local directory on the machine I wish to debug and ran it. The cmd window indicated that I was running "Visual C++ Remote Debug Monitor (x86) Version 7.00.96"

I attempt to select the machine from VS in order to attach to the process and I received an error:

Unable to connect to the machine . The debugger is not properly installed. Run setup to install or repair the debugger.

As I'm not able to find debugging tools online that are old enough, I'm not sure how to proceed.

RBT
  • 24,161
  • 21
  • 159
  • 240
Shani de Leeuw
  • 171
  • 1
  • 11
  • 2
    Windows XP is long dead. Your only hope is to try old VS releases, and remote debugger must match the VS version you use on the other machine. – Lex Li Dec 05 '17 at 03:02
  • Related post - [How to setup remote debugging on a machine without Visual Studio](https://stackoverflow.com/q/11586500/465053) – RBT Apr 18 '18 at 06:31
  • Yes Windows XP is long dead.. I'm reminded of this every time I have to take a VS2013 or VS2019 project down into VS2010 so I can remote connect with the msvsmon.exe in VS2010 that understands how to speak whatever secret protocol Microsoft changed so that msvsmon in VS2013 and VS2019 won't work with windows XP. So although I can TARGET the XP embedded hardware I have to support for my customers... it's like pulling teeth to do so. – Ross Youngblood Jan 28 '21 at 20:52

1 Answers1

0

While there is still time, you should get a copy of VS2010 Service Patch 2, and install it, the version of msvsmon.exe in VS2010 is the LAST release which supports XP remote debugging. In my work we develop for XP Embedded, and have a large installed base used in manufacturing globally. Our customers would scream bloody murder if we changed the runtime which would break/damage/shutdown manufacturing. So we are now forced to migrate to VS2019 and yet we build for XP clients. Our new products do run newer Windows Embedded versions, but the legacy products are still in demand, and are XP embedded based. There is no remote debug capability to my knowledge with VS2019, and our firm is not allowed to distribute VS2010 to our clients so they can single step debug. Very frustrating.

Ross Youngblood
  • 502
  • 1
  • 3
  • 16