Visual Studio 2012 Express debugging explorer.exe - no breakpoint hit by Patryk Marchwicki

I'm not reopening the ticket, but I still think that it's a serious visual studio 2012 debugger bug that it doesn't "notice" managed code being loaded - "automatically detect type of code" functionality should by design automatically detect loading managed code.

Sorry, this is by design for the debugger. There are many different factors that the debugger uses to determine how to attach. Even with the same version of Visual Studio, it may make a different choice depending on the Operating System or when managed code was loaded into the process.

Thanks,
Visual Studio Debugger Team

Is anybody reviewing this bug? It seems to be a major debugger problem, but MS has got quiet on this.

If you're still not convinced, then please explain to me why VS2012 debugger stops at the breakpoints when attached with explicitly selecting "Managed (v3.5, v3.0, v2.0)" and doesn't stop when selecting "Automatically determine the type of code to debug"?

Putting it more briefly - when selecting "Automatically determine the type of code to debug", Visual Studio 2012 Express doesn't detect explorer.exe switching from "Native code" to "Managed" when it loads managed dll, while 2010 does detect it.

Hi,
explicitly selecting debug type is a workaround to the problem, not an actual solution, therefore I'm reopening the ticket.
In VS2010 Express, which btw doesn't support attaching in UI, adding the following property group do csproj:
<PropertyGroup>
    <StartAction>Program</StartAction>
    <StartProgram>$(windir)\explorer.exe</StartProgram>
    <StartArguments></StartArguments>
</PropertyGroup>
results in debugging explorer.exe and stopping at the breakpoints, while in VS2012 Express debugging process starts but it doesn't stop at the breakpoints at all. So Visual Studio 2012 is not detecting if managed code is already running correctly - there should be no differences in stopping at the breakpoints. Maybe VS 2012 doesn't detect when explorer.exe loads managed code when it starts in native mode first?
If it is too hard to correct, then there should be added an additional PropertyGroup support - for explicitly selecting debugging the mode (same as when attaching in UI) - for example <StartMode>Managed</StartMode>.

Hi,

Visual Studio does not actually determine how explorer.exe is running. Instead, Visual Studio is simply detecting whether managed code is already running in the process in order to make a debug engine choice for you. If you always want to debug managed code, you can click on the select button on the "Attach to Process" dialog and manually choose to debug using managed code.

Thanks,
Visual Studio Debugger Team

Thanks for your feedback.

We are rerouting this issue to the appropriate group within the Microsoft Visual Studio Connect Support Team for triage and resolution. These specialized experts will follow-up with your issue.

Thank you for your feedback, we are currently reviewing the issue you have submitted. If this issue is urgent, please contact support directly(http://support.microsoft.com)