Auto Attach Debugger to Any Process in Visual Studio

For SharePoint developers frustrated with attaching IIS processe to the debugger or are accustomed to debugging a webservice hosted in IIS, this article will help you speed up your development work or at least save a few minutes/seconds.

For SharePoint developers frustrated with attaching IIS processe to the debugger or are accustomed to debugging a webservice hosted in IIS, this article will help you speed up your development work or at least save a few minutes/seconds.

Do you know that any process you need to repeat again and again can be automated in Visual Studio? How? Have you heard of Macros? Yes this is the key for winning this game and get a step ahead of other developers.

Use the following to understand how to attach a process to a debugger:

1. Go to Tools -> Macros -> MacroExplorer
2. Add a new Item in MyMacros (a new module file). Name it as you wish.
3. Paste the following code in it. Make sure to change the module name to your new macro file name.

   Option Strict Off
   Option Explicit Off
   Imports System
   Imports EnvDTE
   Imports EnvDTE80
   Imports EnvDTE90
   Imports System.Diagnostics
   
   Public Module IISDebugAttach
   
       Sub AttachDebuggerToIIS()
           Dim processToAttachTo As String = "w3wp.exe"
   
           If Not AttachToProcess(processToAttachTo) Then
               MsgBox(processToAttachTo & " is not running")
           End If
       End Sub
   
       Function AttachToProcess(ByVal processName As String) As Boolean
   
           Dim proc As EnvDTE.Process
           Dim attached As Boolean
           For Each proc In DTE.Debugger.LocalProcesses
               If (Right(proc.Name, Len(processName)) = processName) Then
                   proc.Attach()
                   attached = True
               End If
           Next
   
           Return attached
       End Function
   End Module

    
4. Build it (optional).
5. Again go to Tools-> Customize
6. Click on the Keyboard button at the bottom
7. Now type macros.my and your macro will be shown in the filtered list; select it.
8. Assign a short key to it and set apply.

Now forget about the headache of attaching to an IIS process every time. Just press your shortcut key. (Make sure you're running your Visual Studio with administrator privilege.)

Have fun. Cheers!!