VS2005, Debugging my CustomInstaller.dll

[Neville Lang]

Hi all,

First my setup: VS2005 on Windows Vista 64-bit, Windows Mobile 2003 on
connected device, CustomInstaller.dll is written in C# in VS2005. Compact
Framework (CF) app that has some x86 EXEs on the desktop side and some CF
EXEs on the device side installed using CAB's and controlled by MSI /
Setup.exe.

I am having trouble attaching the VS2005 debugger to my CustomInstaller.dll
during the app's Uninstall process. In my C# Uninstall code in my
CustomInstaller, I added a MessageBox.Show("xxxx") to stop the uninstall
process so that I could attach the VS debugger and step through my
CustomInstaller code.

Prior to migrating my Solution from VS .NET 2003 to VS2005, something I have
done just recently, I could easily debug the CustomInstaller.dll by
attaching the MSIEXEC.EXE process to the VS .NET 2003 Debugger via VS's
Debug > Attach to Process... I find I cannot do this in VS2005 on Vista 64.
I keep getting the error message "Unable to attach to the process. The
system cannot find the file specified."

Has anyone else encountered this problem in VS2005? Could this be a VS2005
problem only on Vista 64?

Regards,
Neville Lang

 

[Neville Lang]

HI all,

After many days, I finally found a solution to my problem of not being able
to "Attach a Process", MSIEXEC.EXE, for debugging.

It turns out that the MSIEXEC.EXE had a Type "x64" and it was that setting
that could not be attached for debugging. I finally found out from a clue on
another matter, after much digging around on the Microsoft site, that you
need to start Visual Studio 2005 using "Run as administrator", after
right-clicking on the VS2005 desktop icon.

Starting up VS2005 in this mode changes the MSIEXEC.EXE process to Type
"Managed, x86" and now you can attach this process for debugging.

I hope this solution might help others to avoid the frustration I went
through on this issue.

Regards,
Neville Lang