Debug Options

You can control the many debugging options in Visual Studio through the Options dialog box. You can access these options from the Tools menu (Tools, Options) and then select the Debugging node from the left side of the dialog box. Alternatively, you can open the Options dialog right to the Debugging section using the Debug menu (Debug, Options).

Four sets of options are available under the Debugging node:

General—Provides access to the many debugging switches (more than 20) to turn on and off Visual Studio debugging behavior. This includes enabling and disabling breakpoint filters, using just-my-code debugging, enabling the new Diagnostic Tools, creating breakpoint filters, handling warnings, and many other options (see Figure 10.16). Note that the Edit and Continue options have been moved under General for Visual Studio 2015.

FIGURE 10.16 You can use the Options dialog box to control how Visual Studio behaves during a debugging session.

Just-In-Time—Enables you to indicate the type of code (managed, native, and script) for which you want to enable or disable Visual Studio debugging (also called just-in-time debugging).

Output Window—Provides management features for the Output window, such as which messages are shown.

Symbols—Enables you to choose which debug symbols are loaded for your debug session. You can also choose additional debug symbol files (.pdb and .dbg). These files can be helpful if you do not have the source code associated with a particular library you need to debug, such as the .NET Framework itself or a third-party component.

The majority of the settings you manage can be found on the General screen. Figure 10.16 shows the many options for this dialog box. We cover the features behind these options throughout the remainder of this chapter. These many options help you customize your debug experience. However, as we debug code in this chapter, we are assuming the default options for the debugger.