Debug Page, Project Designer

Warning

This topic does not apply to Windows Store apps. See Start a debugging session for a Store app in Visual Studio (VB, C#, C++ and XAML) in the Windows Dev Center.

Use the Debug page of the Project Designer to set properties for debugging behavior in a Visual Basic or C# project.

To access the Debug page, select a project node in Solution Explorer. On the Project menu, choose ProjectNameProperties. When the Project Designer appears, click the Debug tab.

Configuration and Platform

The following options allow you to select the configuration and platform to display or modify.

  • Configuration
    Specifies which configuration settings to display or modify. The settings can be Debug (default), Release, or All Configurations. For more information, see Debug and Release Project Configurations.

  • Platform
    Specifies which platform settings to display or modify. The choices can include Any CPU (default), x64, and x86. For more information, see Debug and Release Project Configurations.

Start Action

Start Action indicates the item to start when the application is debugged: the project, a custom program, a URL, or nothing. By default, this option is set to Start project. The Start Action setting on the Debug page determines the value of the StartAction property.

  • Start project
    Choose this option to specify that the executable (for Windows Application and Console Application projects) should be started when the application is debugged. This option is selected by default.

  • Start external program
    Choose this option to specify that a specific program should be started when the application is debugged.

  • Start browser with URL
    Choose this option to specify that a particular URL should be accessed when the application is debugged.

Start Options

  • Command line arguments
    In this text box, enter the command-line arguments to use for debugging.

  • Working directory
    In this text box, enter the directory from which the project will be launched. Or click the Browse button (...) to choose a directory.

  • Use remote machine
    To debug the application from a remote computer, select this check box, and enter the path to the remote computer in the text box.

Enable Debuggers

  • Enable unmanaged code debugging
    This option specifies whether debugging of native code is supported. Select this check box if you are making calls to COM objects or if you start a custom program written in native code that calls your project and you must debug the native code. Clear this check box to disable debugging of unmanaged code. This check box is cleared by default.

  • Enable SQL Server debugging
    Select or clear this check box to enable or disable debugging of SQL procedures from your Visual Basic application. This check box is cleared by default.

  • Enable the Visual Studio hosting process
    Select this check box to enable the Visual Studio hosting process. This check box is selected by default. For more information, see Hosting Process (vshost.exe).

    To debug in a security zone, you must enable this option and Debug this application with the selected permission set in the Advanced Security Settings Dialog Box.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Debug a ClickOnce Application with Restricted Permissions

How to: Create and Edit Configurations

Concepts

Project Settings for C# Debug Configurations

Project Settings for a Visual Basic Debug Configuration

Other Resources

Debugging in Visual Studio

Managing Debugging Properties