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WinDbg: Settings and workspaces

WinDbg logo with a magnifying glass inspecting bits.

This article describes how to set up and configure WinDbg.

Settings

Use the Settings menu to set items such as the source and symbol path. You can also choose the light or dark theme for WinDbg.

Screenshot of the WinDbg Settings menu displaying the General tab.

There are currently six Settings dialogs:

  • General
  • Command window
  • Debugging settings
  • Disassembly windows
  • Events & exceptions
  • Source window

For more information on setting the paths, see Symbol path for Windows debugger and Source code debugging in WinDbg (Classic).

Workspaces

With workspaces, you can save configuration information in the target connection information file.

The options in workspaces are saved when you close the debugger. To save them manually, select File > Save Workspace.

Workspaces are automatically loaded if you open them from the recent targets list. You can also load them manually on the File menu.

In addition to the target connection information, the following settings are stored in the workspace file.

General settings

Note

This list and format isn't final and is subject to change.

Setting Default Description
FinalBreak true If true, ignores the final breakpoint (-g command-line option).
SourceDebugging true Toggles between source or assembly mode.
DebugChildProcesses false (User mode only.) If true, debugs child processes started by the target application (-o command-line option).
Noninvasive false Specifies noninvasive attach (-pv command-line option).
NoDebugHeap false Specifies the debug heap shouldn't be used (-hd command-line option).
Verbose false When verbose mode is turned on, produces more detailed output (-v command-line option) for some display commands (such as register dumping).
Elevate - Used internally by WinDbg. Do not modify.
Restartable - Used internally by WinDbg. Do not modify.
UseImplicitCommandLine false Uses implicit command line (-cimp command-line option). This setting starts the debugger with an implicit command line instead of an explicit process to run.

For more information about the command-line options, see WinDbg command-line options.

Symbol settings

Setting Default Description
SymbolOptionsOverride 0 This explicit symbol option mask is in the form of a single hex number.
ShouldOverrideSymbolOptions false If set to true, overrides all the symbol options listed in this table with the provided symbol option mask, which is described in the preceding table.
SymOptExactSymbols false This option causes the debugger to perform a strict evaluation of all symbol files.
SymOptFailCriticalErrors false This symbol option causes file access error dialog boxes to be suppressed.
SymOptIgnoreCvRec false This option causes the symbol handler to ignore the CV record in the loaded image header when searching for symbols.
SymOptIgnoreNtSympath false This option causes the debugger to ignore the environment variable settings for the symbol path and the executable image path.
SymOptNoCpp false This symbol option turns off C++ translation. When this symbol option is set, __ replaces :: in all symbols.
SymOptNoUnqualifiedLoads false This symbol option disables the symbol handler's automatic loading of modules. When this option is set, the debugger attempts to match a symbol. It searches only modules that were already loaded.
SymOptAutoPublics false This symbol option causes DbgHelp to search the public symbol table in a .pdb file only as a last resort. If any matches are found when searching the private symbol data, the public symbols aren't searched. This setting improves symbol search speed.
SymOptDebug false This symbol option turns on noisy symbol loading. This setting instructs the debugger to display information about its search for symbols.

For more information on symbol options, see Symbol options.

Window layout settings

Window layout settings are saved globally and aren't saved in the workspace file.

Workspace XML file

The workspace and target connection information is stored in XML format.

The following file shows an example workspace configuration file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TargetConfig Name="C:\paint.dmp" LastUsed="2017-08-03T21:34:20.1013837Z">
  <EngineConfig />
  <EngineOptions>
    <Property name="FinalBreak" value="true" />
    <Property name="SourceDebugging" value="true" />
    <Property name="DebugChildProcesses" value="false" />
    <Property name="Noninvasive" value="false" />
    <Property name="NoDebugHeap" value="false" />
    <Property name="Verbose" value="false" />
    <Property name="SymbolOptionsOverride" value="0" />
    <Property name="ShouldOverrideSymbolOptions" value="false" />
    <Property name="SymOptExactSymbols" value="false" />
    <Property name="SymOptFailCriticalErrors" value="false" />
    <Property name="SymOptIgnoreCvRec" value="false" />
    <Property name="SymOptIgnoreNtSympath" value="false" />
    <Property name="SymOptNoCpp" value="false" />
    <Property name="SymOptNoUnqualifiedLoads" value="false" />
    <Property name="SymOptAutoPublics" value="false" />
    <Property name="SymOptDebug" value="false" />
    <Property name="Elevate" value="false" />
    <Property name="Restartable" value="true" />
    <Property name="UseImplicitCommandLine" value="false" />
  </EngineOptions>
  <TargetOptions>
    <Option name="OpenDump">
      <Property name="DumpPath" value="C:\paint.dmp" />
    </Option>
  </TargetOptions>
</TargetConfig>

This file format continues to evolve as more features are added to WinDbg.

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