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How to: Display WPF Trace Information

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Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

Visual Studio can receive debug trace information from WPF applications and display that information in the Output window. To display debug trace information, WPF tracing must be enabled.

You can enable WPF tracing in your App.Config file or programmatically by using the PresentationTraceSources class. An easier way to enable WPF tracing is by using the Options window. WPF tracing for web applications is not supported.

To enable or customize WPF trace information

  1. On the Tools menu, select Options.

  2. In the Options dialog box, in the box on the left, open the Debugging node.

  3. Under Debugging, click Output Window.

  4. Under General Output Settings, select All debug output.

  5. In the box on the right, look for WPF Trace Settings.

  6. Open the WPF Trace Settings node.

  7. Under WPF Trace Settings, click the category of settings that you want to enable (for example, Data Binding).

    A drop-down list control appears in the Settings column next to Data Binding or whatever category you clicked.

  8. Click the drop-down list and select the type of trace information that you want to see: All, Critical, Error, Warning, Information, Verbose, or ActivityTracing.

    Critical enables tracing of Critical events only.

    Error enables tracing of Critical and Error events.

    Warning enables tracing of Critical, Error, and Warning events.

    Information enables tracing of Critical, Error, Warning, and Information events.

    Verbose enables tracing of Critical, Error, Warning, Information, and Verbose events.

    ActivityTracing enables tracing of Stop, Start, Suspend, Transfer, and Resume events.

    For more information about what these levels of trace information mean, see SourceLevels.

  9. Click OK.

To disable WPF trace information

  1. On the Tools menu, select Options.

  2. In the Options dialog box, in the box on the left, open the Debugging node.

  3. Under Debugging, click Output Window.

  4. In the box on the right, look for WPF Trace Settings.

  5. Open the WPF Trace Settings node.

  6. Under WPF Trace Settings, click the category of settings that you want to enable (for example, Data Binding).

    A drop-down list control appears in the Settings column next to Data Binding or whatever category you clicked.

  7. Click the drop-down list and select Off.

  8. Click OK.

See also