Error: The Microsoft Visual Studio Remote Debugging Monitor (MSVSMON.EXE) does not appear to be running on the remote computer.

When you try to do remote debugging, you might receive this error message. It means that Visual Studio could not find an instance of the Visual Studio Remote Debugging Monitor on the remote computer. The Visual Studio Remote Debugging Monitor is required for remote debugging to work.

If you are trying to connect to an instance of the Visual Studio Remote Debugging Monitor running under a different user account, you have to tell the debugger the name of the instance of msvsmon.exe to connect to, for example, user_name@computer.

You might also receive this error if file and printer sharing is not enabled.

To run the Visual Studio Remote Debugging Monitor on the remote computer

  1. Make sure that the remote computer has access to the Visual Studio Remote Debugging Monitor.

    1. If you are debugging a Windows client application, create a file share on the Visual Studio computer and run the remote debugger off this file share. Make sure that the remote computer has access to the file share.

    2. If you are debugging an ASP.NET application or other server application, run Visual Studio Remote Debugger setup on the remote computer and use the Visual Studio Remote Debugger Configuration wizard to enable the remote debugger service.

    For more information, see Set Up the Remote Tools on the Device.

  2. Start the Visual Studio Remote Debugging Monitor on the remote computer. For more information, see Start the Remote Debugging Monitor.

To enable file and printer sharing on Windows 7

  1. Open Network and Sharing Center. To do this, click Start, click Control Panel, click Network and Internet, and then click Network and Sharing Center.

  2. Click Choose homegroup and sharing options, click Change advanced sharing settings, and then click Turn on file and printer sharing.

  3. Click Save Changes.

To enable file and printer sharing on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista

  1. Open Network and Sharing Center. To do this, click Start, click Control Panel, click Network and Internet, and then click Network and Sharing Center.

  2. If file sharing is turned off, click the arrow button to expand the section, click Turn on file sharing, and then click Apply. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

To enable file and printer sharing on Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) or Windows 2003 Service Pack 1

  1. Open Windows Firewall. To do this, click Start, click Control Panel, click Windows Firewall.

  2. Click the Exceptions tab and select File and Printer Sharing.

  3. Click OK.

See Also

Tasks

Remote Debugging Errors and Troubleshooting