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How to: Examine System Code After an Exception

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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

When an exception occurs, you might have to examine code inside a system call to determine the cause of the exception. The following procedure explains how to do this if you do not have symbols loaded for the system code or if Just My Code is enabled.

To examine system code following an exception

  1. In the Call Stack window, right-click, then click Show External Code.

    If Just My Code is not enabled, this option is not available on the shortcut menu and system code is shown by default.

  2. Right-click the external code frames that now appear in the Call Stack window.

  3. Point to Load Symbols From and then click Microsoft Symbol Servers.

    1. If Just My Code was enabled, a dialog box appears. It states that Just My Code has now been disabled. This is necessary for stepping into system calls.

    2. The Downloading public symbols dialog box appears. It will disappear when downloading finishes.

  4. You can now examine the system code in the Call Stack window and other windows. For example, you can double-click a call stack frame to view the code in a source or Disassembly window.

See also