Remote Debugging on an XP Home Client?

Question

Hi Folks:

   Developing on Win 7 Ultra, VS 2010 Pro, C++. 

   I have an app that runs fine on my Win 7 system, but fails when run on my client's Windows 7 Laptop and it fails at the same point on my laptop that runs XP Home. 

   Attempts to run the client side of the remote debugger results in this error:

      The following error occurred:  The Visual Studio Remote Debugger does not support this edition of Windows, 
      View Msvsmon's help for more information.

   I hope I'm wrong, but I'm starting to get the feeling that I can't use the remote debugger on an XP Home client. 

   My client is not technically inclined, and setting up his system to run the client side of a remote debugging session is just not going to happen. 

   Is there any way to run remote debugging with an XP Home client? 

   If not, is this a technical issue? 

   If not, how would you suggest I proceed? 

   I've read VS 2010 Pro's EULA, and I interpret it to allow me to have VS 2010 installed in more than one computer, as long as I only use one copy at a time.  So I have VS2010 installed on the XP Home Laptop, with it's debugger. 

   I believe there are command line options that put debug information in a release executable, so the debugger can get some information. 

   Can I also build a release executable with the same level of optimization as a debug build?  Will this help to keep the code lined up with the debug symbols? To help me identify the point of failure?

   The application, with all of it's support libraries, is too large to copy from the Win 7 system to the XP laptop. 

   Someone ran into this problem last year, and the responders didn't say remote debugging couldn't be run on XP Home, they didn't address that question.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vsdebug/thread/e071bb56-4e7f-47ef-b6d5-a799e9dcf025/

   Thanks
   Larry

 

Answer 1

System requirements of Visual Studio 2010 remote debugger is:

 

Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 R2 (32-Bit x86), Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 editions, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2, Windows Vista Service Pack 2, Windows XP Service Pack 3

• Windows XP (x86) with Service Pack 3 - all editions except Starter Edition

• Windows Vista (x86 & x64) with Service Pack 2 - all editions except Starter Edition

• Windows 7 (x86 and x64)

• Windows Server 2003 (x86 & x64) with Service Pack 2 - all editions
  • Users will need to install MSXML6 if not already present

• Windows Server 2003 R2 (x86 and x64) - all editions
• Windows Server 2008 (x86 and x64) with Service Pack 2 - all editions
• Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64) - all editions

 

As you can see that almost all editions of Windows XP (x86) with sp3 support remote debugger, did you install SP3 for your Windows XP machine?

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Answer 2

Thanks Eric:

   The XP Home machine is at SP3. 

   Is that a list of supported hosts, with VS 2010, or clients, with the application, or both?

   I have succeeded to get remote debugging working with an XP Media Center client. 

   Have you tried a remote debugging session with an XP Home client?

           Larry

 

Answer 3

Not meaning to bump a semi old topic but it lives without resolution. I'm also encountering exactly the same issue and I'm finding there is little to no information about it.

I've developed an application on a Win 7 x64 machine using VS2010. The application itself is x86 and have had no troubles with it running on a Win 7 x86 machine. So I wanted to test on XP and discovered the program crashes near start up. So I want to remotely debug.

The system is running Windows XP Home Edition SP3.

However after following the instructions on the Microsoft site (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bt727f1t.aspx) and further information from CodeProject (http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/146838/Remote-debugging-with-Visual-Studio-2010), I tried to run Msvsmon and get the same error as Larry...

The following error occurred: The Visual Studio Remote Debugger does not support this edition of Windows.
View Msvsmon's help for more information. 

Not only can I not find the existence of Msvsmon's help, but any help at all. After an hour or so of dredging through pages, I found only 3 references to the use of Windows XP Home and Visual Studio Remote Debugger. 2 of them were this post and another post that also had no resolution. The third is a very short reference from http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/visual_studio_remote_debugging.html 

Under the heading it says "NOTE: Remote Debugging capability is not available in Visual Studio 2005/2008 Express. It also does not work on Windows XP Home edition, you will get an error saying "Not supported on this edition of Windows.""

As you stated eryang, those are the system requirements for Visual Studio 2010 Remote Debugger. But I think I have to call that bluff and say it's not true. If I am wrong and we should be able to use Windows XP Home Edition, then why can't we even start the monitor program? If I'm right and it's merely a typo on the system requirements then can it be changed so that people don't have to waste time trying to find the answer that isn't there?

Though it would be strange to think that one of the most widely used editions of Windows is the only one not supported...

Answer 4

Hello Scuba:

   I've never resolved this either. 

   Fortunately, I have a PC running XP MediaCenter that exhibited the same problem as my XP home system. 

   I believe XP Media Center is a type of XP Pro. 

   I was unable to get a remote debugging session for running the app on the XP Media Center machine either, using Microsoft's documentation. 

   Fortunately, I found this site:

             http://kbalertz.com/833900/debug-computers-running-Windows-Workgroup-Visual-Studio.aspx

   This described in detail setting up a user and group that would allow remote debugging.  It's been a busy month and a half since I've done that, so I can't tell you exactly what was required. 

   Anyway, I was able to run the remote debugger on the app running on the XP Media Center PC, and correct the problem. 

   I believe when I attempted to duplicate the account and group setup on the XP home system, some of the settings were not available for that operating system. 

   I only have Win 7 ultra.  Do all lesser versions of Win 7 allow remote debugging? 

   I agree with you.  Remote debugging, except on XP Home, is very limiting. 

   Hopefully, somebody at Microsoft can shed some light on this issue. 

          Larry

 

Answer 5

Usually the issue is security and network access. Make sure you have the firewall on both the remote and local machine set to allow access on the udp and tcp ports required for remote debutting. Make sure the user account that you run the debug monitor under on the remote machine has "debug' privileges.

 

Then

Open the project properties page for your project on your local machine. Under "Configuration Properites" click "Debugging"

1. In "Debugger to launch" drop down chose "Remote Windows Debugger".
2. In "Remote Server Name" entry filed enter the host name that you have "Remote Debugging Monitor" running
    on and you want to debug on.
3. IN "Connection" drop down chose "Remote with no authentication (Native only)"
4. Ok and Apply as necessary

The last item "Remote with no authentication" is crucial. If you don't' have this you can't connect and you get the dreaded
"The Visual Studio Remote Debugger does not support this edition of Windows." message.

I never seend this Connection setting mentioned in any of the Microsoft lit., but its essential.