Visual Studio - Attach to process shortcut

Question

When I want to debug I have to do Debug->Attach to Process -> Look for a process in the list -> Attach.

I was wondering if I can create some kind of a shortcut to do this for me?

If you've situation like me, when you need to repeat the attach-to-processes operation using the same set of processes, grab [resurrect extension](http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/043c7c91-e127-4616-bce0-39b869cee4b3) and give it a try. It helped me so I've published it. — jwaliszko, Apr 04 '14 at 20:41

score 86 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 15 '15 at 06:54

86

The shortcut is Ctrl+Alt+P in Visual Studio 2005 and above.

edited Sep 15 '15 at 06:54

Karim AG

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answered Jul 23 '12 at 10:15

Rajesh

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would note that this get's hijacked by default re-sharper settings! – actual_kangaroo Jan 04 '15 at 09:28
@EruPenkman Not with the Visual Studio scheme (as of ReSharper 9 and Visual Studio 2013) – Gabriel Jan 05 '15 at 22:59
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I've been using ALT+D, P. This is faster. – blockloop Mar 19 '15 at 22:32

score 23 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

23

The easiest way to do this is to write a macro which finds the DTE.LocalProcess you wan to target and automatically attach. For example

Public Sub AttachShortcut()
  For Each proc In DTE.Debugger.LocalProcesses 
    If proc.Name = "what you're looking for" Then
      proc.Attach()
      Exit Sub
    End IF
  Next
End Sub

Note: This Stack Overflow Question is related and has a sample you may find useful

Attaching to a child process automatically in Visual Studio during Debugging

edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

Community

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answered Jul 14 '11 at 16:36

JaredPar

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Macros are no longer available in Visual Studio 2012. For more details, see http://www.infoq.com/news/2011/10/VS-Macros/ – Kjetil Klaussen Aug 02 '12 at 08:17
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You can reuse macros code in VS 2012/2013 with Visual Commander http://vlasovstudio.com/visual-commander/ – Sergey Vlasov May 23 '14 at 06:37
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John Rea's answer below should be marked as the new answer, or at least have its information included in the answer for people using Visual Studio 2012 and up. The add-ins ReAttach and AttachTo are good examples. – Ultroman the Tacoman Feb 10 '15 at 10:51
I've written a blog post about how to create a shortcut with the Visual Commander extension: http://blog.markvincze.com/attach-to-process-shortcut-in-visual-studio/ – Mark Vincze Sep 05 '15 at 08:31
This should be downvoted now. Ctrl + Alt + P is the shortcut, as said in the answer from Rajesh. – Jaywalker Dec 31 '15 at 09:39

Tom Bowers · Answer 3 · 2022-06-14T00:31:40.257

To enable the 'Attach to Process' toolbar button in Visual Studio 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2022

Right-click on any toolbar and click 'customize...'
Click the 'commands' tab
Click the 'Toolbar' radio button
Select the toolbar where you want your button to appear from the dropdown
Click the 'Add Command...' button
Select 'Debug' from the categories list on the left
Select 'Attach to Process' from the commands list on the right, and click ok. The button will appear on your selected toolbar.
Optionally, use the 'Move Up' and 'Move Down' buttons on the right to move your new button to your desired location within the toolbar. I keep mine just after the Debug button.

score 14 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 20 '16 at 07:19

14

You can use the Alt key shortcut ALT+D,P to launch the "Attach to Process" window via Debug menu.

Once there, you can use your keyboard to search the list of Available Processes (e.g. type "w3wp" if you want to attach to an IIS app pool)

edited Jul 20 '16 at 07:19

DL Narasimhan

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answered Aug 24 '14 at 16:07

TMcManemy

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score 14 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 14 '17 at 09:08

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Writing a macro is one option, however it cannot deduct which process to attach to by itself.

Another nice solution is to map the "Attach to process" command to a shortcut key:

(Tools -> Options -> Environment -> Keyboard, type attach, like i did in this example, and select a shortcut key):

enter image description here

edited Jul 14 '17 at 09:08

Mike Chamberlain

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answered Jul 14 '11 at 21:10

lysergic-acid

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yes. this will open up attach to process window. the above macro goes further. it finds the process and attaches. – dev.e.loper Jul 15 '11 at 14:03
i was not sure which process it is that he's after. starting to like macros more and more recently :) – lysergic-acid Jul 15 '11 at 14:45
It should already have built in shortcut Ctrl+Alt+P. Might be different if you chose different kbd settings. – user3285954 Feb 09 '17 at 15:17

score 13 · Answer 6 · edited Oct 27 '20 at 09:21

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For Visual Studio 2017, 2019, there is a ReAttach extension available. Very handy.

edited Oct 27 '20 at 09:21

Alex

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answered Jun 18 '16 at 14:06

Dawid Sibiński

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This is the answer that worked for me. I'm unsure what the answers that suggest keyboard shortcuts are doing as that's not what the question was asking. Cheers! – AStopher Jul 18 '16 at 17:46
VS 2019 is also supported. – Valera Scherbakov May 14 '19 at 15:51
I don't see VS2019 support listed in the https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ErlandR.ReAttach you sure? – Mohammed Dawood Ansari Oct 08 '20 at 08:57
@MohammedDawoodAnsari I can see "Works with Visual Studio 2017, 2019". However, I don't use it anymore in VS 2019. In VS 2019 there's a built-in option for that: Debug -> Reattach to Process. It becomes available after you already attached to any process within given VS session. – Dawid Sibiński Oct 09 '20 at 09:13
Yes, you are right. VS 2019 got built in reattach, thanks. – Mohammed Dawood Ansari Oct 10 '20 at 11:19

Brian Wigginton · Answer 7 · 2013-03-01T17:26:18.007

13

This answer should work for Visual Studio 2010.

I like having buttons to do this on my debug toolbar

https://gist.github.com/1406827

The gist contains a method for attaching to IIS (w3wp.exe) or ASP (aspnet_wp.exe) and also nunit (nunit-agent.exe). Instructions are included on how to add the macros to your debug toolbar.

edited Mar 01 '13 at 17:26

answered Nov 29 '11 at 22:31

Brian Wigginton

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I can't believe this answer hasn't got more votes yet. The steps are super easy to follow and it works perfectly. Thanks! – Adrian Schmidt Jan 29 '13 at 08:13
Adrian, glad it worked for you! This saved me a ton of time when I was doing .net work. – Brian Wigginton Jan 29 '13 at 17:46
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There are no macros in VS2012 so your answer is pretty useless – DATEx2 Mar 01 '13 at 15:05
DotNetWise: thanks, I've updated this answer to reflect that. – Brian Wigginton Mar 01 '13 at 17:26
The link on github does not explain how to actually do the installation of the product. It's not user friendly. I'm not sure what to do with that code. – P.Brian.Mackey Nov 10 '16 at 16:48
@P.Brian.Mackey There's instructions on how to install the macro at the top of the file. I haven't used VS in years though, so maybe I'm missing a critical step? Best of luck with this. – Brian Wigginton Nov 10 '16 at 22:12

score 12 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 01 '17 at 16:57

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I use this built in "Shortcut"

ALT+D, P, W, ENTER

this opens the debug menu, selects attach to process, scrolls down to w3wp.exe and attaches.

It's long but should work in multiple visual studio versions with no setup required, with or without resharper and it works when running multiple IIS processes as you can choose which process to attach to.

edited Jun 01 '17 at 16:57

drzaus

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answered Nov 19 '14 at 00:31

actual_kangaroo

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If you (are able to) set up all websites to reuse the same apppool there will only be one w3p process – drzaus Jun 01 '17 at 16:55
How do you build a shortcut? – Aximili Feb 25 '20 at 22:26

score 7 · Answer 9 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

7

Addins are probably a better way to do this now. I use one called "Attach to anything". You can find them in Visual Studio 2012. Go to "Tools" -> "Extensions and updates", search for "attach", and install "attach to anything".

Also see: Automate "Attach to Process" in Visual Studio 2012

edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

Community

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answered Nov 11 '14 at 09:53

Jon Rea

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This should be marked as the new answer, since macros were removed in 2012. The add-ins ReAttach and AttachTo are good examples. – Ultroman the Tacoman Feb 10 '15 at 10:50

score 4 · Answer 10 · edited Aug 13 '21 at 13:03

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Alt+Shift+P to reattach the last attached process.

It works for me in Visual Studio 2017.

edited Aug 13 '21 at 13:03

Axifive

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answered Apr 20 '18 at 12:10

user3463072

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score 0 · Answer 11 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

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Personally I prefer to use Debugger.Launch() as suggested here in this thread, because it doesn't need for references to the DTE (that's IDE-specific and must be explicitly referenced into the project to be used)

edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

Community

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answered Jul 03 '13 at 08:53

NinjaCross

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Tim Abell · Answer 12 · 2017-02-16T12:06:01.257

VS extensions

More: Search the VS Marketplace for "attach"

Keyboard

The attach to process shortcut is Ctrl+Alt+P in Visual Studio 2005 and above. You can then press the first letter of the process name you want, e.g. w for w3wp.exe and it'll jump to that, then Enter to attach.
You can use the Alt key shortcut ALT+D,P to launch the "Attach to Process" window via Debug menu.

Code

Add System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Launch() to your code

Current release is VS2015 at time of writing.

Go ahead and edit/extend this answer :-)

Visual Studio - Attach to process shortcut

12 Answers12

VS extensions

Keyboard

Code

Linked

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