How to: Set Up Remote Debugging
The Visual Studio remote debugger lets you run, debug, and test an application that is running on one device from a another computer that is running Visual Studio.
Note
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Windows Store apps For information about remote debugging of Windows Store apps, see Running Windows Store apps on a remote machine in the Windows Developer Center. |
To debug on a remote device:
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The remote device and the Visual Studio computer must be connected over a network or connected directly through an Ethernet cable. Debugging over the internet is not supported.
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The remote device must be running the remote debugging components.
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You must be an administrator to install the remote debugger on the remote device. To communicate with the remote debugger, you must have user access to the remote device.
Installing the remote debugging components
Download the Visual Studio Remote Debugger setup program from the Microsoft download center. Run the setup program that matches the operating system (x86, x64, ARM) on the remote device.
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Operating system |
Microsoft download center |
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x86 |
Remote Tools for Visual Studio (x86) |
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x64 |
Remote Tools for Visual Studio (x64) |
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ARM |
Remote Tools for Visual Studio (ARM) |
In the setup dialog box, accept the user agreement, and then choose Install.
By default, the remote debugging components are installed on the remote device in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\Remote Debugger folder.
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To start the remote debugger for the first time, you must have administrative permissions on the remote device to allow the debugger to configure the firewall. |
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On the Start menu of the remote machine, choose Remote Debugger. You must have administrator privileges to start the remote debugger for the first time.
When you start the remote debugger for the first time, the Configure Remote Debugging dialog box appears.
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If the Windows Service API is not installed, choose the Install button.
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Select the type of networks that you want the remote debugger to communicate with. At least one network type must be selected.
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Choose Configure remote debugging to configure the firewall and start the Remote Debugging Monitor.
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To change the Authentication mode or to specify a timeout value for the remote debugger, choose Options on the Remote Debugging Monitor Tools menu.
Caution
By default, the remote debugger uses Windows Authentication. You can choose to run the remote debugger in No Authentication mode, but this mode is strongly discouraged. There is no network security when you run in this mode. Choose the No Authentication mode only if you are sure that the network is not at risk of from malicious or hostile traffic.
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By default, Administrators of the remote device can connect to the remote debugger. To grant or deny other users permission to use the remote debugger, choose Permissions on the Tools menu.
When the debugger is running, it broadcasts its identity on the local sub-net of the network, which allows a Visual Studio computer on the same sub-net to know that the remote device is available as a remote debugging target.
You can change the configuration of the remote debugger after you have started it for the first time.
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To start the remote debugger: sStart the remote debugger. On the Start menu of the remote machine, choose Remote Debugger.
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To grant or deny other users permission to use the remote debugger, choose Permissions on the Tools menu. You must have administrator privileges to grant or deny permissions.
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To change the Authentication mode or to specify a timeout value for the remote debugger, choose Options on the Remote Debugging Monitor Tools menu.
Caution
You can choose to run the remote debugger in No Authentication mode, but this mode is strongly discouraged. There is no network security when you run in this mode. Choose the No Authentication mode only if you are sure that the network is not at risk of from malicious or hostile traffic.
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To run the remote debugger as a service or change remote debugging network options To run the remote debugger as a service or change remote debugging network options, on the Start menu, search for Remote Debugger Configuration Wizard. By default, the remote debugger runs as a Windows application. In the Configuration Wizard, you can choose to run the remote debugger as a Windows service. You can also restrict the networks that the remote debugger is allowed to communicate with. You must have administrator privileges to perform these actions.
In most cases, you will install the remote debugger on the remote device. You can run also run the remote debugger from a shared directory on the Visual Studio computer. This practice is not recommended.
Running from a shared directory has the following limitations:
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Launching Windows Store apps is not supported. However, it is still possible to manually attach.
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Debugging JavaScript is not supported.
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Stepping into a web service is not supported. However, it is still possible to manually attach.
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Automatically launching an ASP.NET site under the debugger is not supported. However, it is still possible to manually attach.
To run the remote debugger from a share:
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Share the Remote Debugger folder in the Visual Studio installation directory.
The default install path is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\Remote Debugger.
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On the remote device, open the shared folder, and then double-click the vsmon.exe file in the sub folder whose name corresponds with the operating system type of the remote device.
