Nov 1, 2022

Debugging Windows 11

I was installing my printer driver to my new Windows 11.

And I need a debugger to troubleshoot my printer driver. It is time to get a Windows Debugger for the new OS.

The Windows Debugger (WinDbg) can be used to debug kernel-mode and user-mode code, analyze crash dumps, and examine the CPU registers while the code executes. 

Before get start with Windows debugging, we need to complete 2 things.

Seem like the easiest way to get Windows symbols is to use the Microsoft public symbol server. The symbol server makes symbols available to your debugging tools as needed and make it easier to debug your code. 

After a symbol file is downloaded from the symbol server it is cached on the local computer for quick access. And Microsoft no longer publishing the offline symbol packages for Windows.

While looking for WinDBG, I also found WinDbg Preview (at MS Store).

WinDbg Preview is the latest version of WinDbg with more modern visuals, faster windows, a full-fledged scripting experience, built with the extensible debugger data model front and center. In short, simply more user friendly.

And the best part is, WinDbg Preview is available in MS Store. Simply run the cmdline below to install it.

C:\> winget install WinDbg --source msstore

Links: