WinDBG: The very basics

My command prompt opens a bit differently as you can see as I think my machine which has been getting slow and doing some strange things lately needs probably a reinstall?

Tried plain cmd and got this - so do I uninstall and reinstall?

Am going back to reinstall the WinKits as I seem to be getting nowhere here.

derekimo said:

You are copying Arc's 8.0 from the tutorial and yours is 8.1 John, try changing that part in the cmd box above.

See if that get's you to the next step.

Ok Derek I will try in just a minute as I have just reinstalled WinKits as I think I may have done it wrong in the first place. On the laptop I had no hint of a problem and it worked perfectly.

Arc said:

Hi John. :)

Follow this path ....

Start> All Programs > Windows Kits > Debugging tool for windows (x64)

When you are there, right click on WinDbg (x64) .... that is here ....

Attachment 327827

Now click "Properties" from the context menu. When the properties dialog will be open, you will notice that the "Target" is highlighted. Copy that target and paste it in your reply.

Now I have reinstalled I am getting this where you said Archie
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Debuggers\x64\windbg.exe"

I tried openeing a DMP file but nothing except the ref to look for another program to open it wirh.

Now it has occured to me that the laptop is running 8.1 and this machine 7 would that be the problem??

That should not be the problem. I think you are not doing it rightly.

Please take a time and do it slowly and carefully, step by step?

Arc said:

That should not be the problem. I think you are not doing it rightly.

Please take a time and do it slowly and carefully, step by step?

Ok Archie I will do it again but I did take great care to follow it this time but will try once more.
I think maybe because I think I need a reinstall on this machine things are not going really that well.
It has got to be something like that because I did it on the laptop and it worked straight away.

Now I am a little confused because it goes on to say download the SDK which I have - but when I run it I get the install window - see my pic and it says install it to this computer. But then a little further on it says now the Kit has been saved the FRAMEWORK must be installed first??
So you see my dilemma do I go right through with the WGB or install the FRAMEWORK the go back to the SDK download and run it??
It seems to me and no offence meant to Nommy or yourself that it should be the other way round -download and install FRAMEWORK and then run the install of the SDK??

Yes, winDbg always needs the dotnet framework to run. If it is already installed, then it will not be reinstalled. But the information will appear for sure.

Installing WinDbg is not enough to open dumps with WinDbg directly. What you have to open a crash dump with WinDbg is to use File > Open Crash dump.

But if you want to double click on a crash dump to open it with WinDbg directly, you have to configure the .dmp file association with WinDbg. And you have to follow the commands to do it properly.