Shortcuts For Debugging In Visual Studio

Debugging is one of the most important aspect of programming. It is crucial to successful software development, but even many experienced programmers find it challenging. With the help of keyboard shortcuts , it can be made faster. So here is the list of all shortcut keys available in visual studio for debugging.

Debugging Shortcuts in Visual Studio
 

Shortcut

Description

Ctrl-Alt-V, A Displays the Auto window to view the values of variables currently in the scope of the current line of execution within the current procedure
Ctrl-Alt-Break Temporarily stops execution of all processes in a debugging session. Available only in run mode
Ctrl-Alt-B Displays the Breakpoints dialog, where you can add and modify breakpoints
Ctrl-Alt-C Displays the Call Stack window to display a list of all active procedures or stack frames for the current thread of execution. Available only in break mode
Ctrl-Shift-F9 Clears all of the breakpoints in the project
Ctrl-Alt-D Displays the Disassembly window
Ctrl-F9 Enables or disables the breakpoint on the current line of code. The line must already havek a breakpoint for this to work
Ctrl-Alt-E Displays the Exceptions dialog
Ctrl-Alt-I Displays the Immediate window, where you can evaluate expressions and execute individual commands
Ctrl-Alt-V, L Displays the Locals window to view the variables and their values for the currently selected procedure in the stack frame
Ctrl-Alt-M, 1 Displays the Memory 1 window to view memory in the process being debugged. This is particularly useful when you do not have debugging symbols available for the code you are looking at. It is also helpful for looking at large buffers, strings, and other data that does not display clearly in the Watch or Variables window
Ctrl-Alt-M, 2 Displays the Memory 2 window
Ctrl-Alt-M, 3 Displays the Memory 3 window
Ctrl-Alt-M, 4 Displays the Memory 4 window
Ctrl-Alt-U Displays the Modules window, which allows you to view the .dll or .exe files loaded by the program. In multiprocess debugging, you can right-click and select Show Modules for all programs
Ctrl-B Opens the New Breakpoint dialog
Ctrl-Alt-Q Displays the Quick Watch dialog with the current value of the selected expression. Available only in break mode. Use this command to check the current value of a variable, property, or other expression for which you have not defined a watch expression
Ctrl-Alt-G Displays the Registers window, which displays CPU register contents
Ctrl-Shift-F5 Terminates the current debugging session, rebuilds if necessary, and then starts a new debugging session. Available in break and run modes
Ctrl-Alt-N Displays the Running Documents window that displays the set of HTML documents that you are in the process of debugging. Available in break and run modes
Ctrl-F10 Starts or resumes execution of your code and then halts execution when it reaches the selected statement. This starts the debugger if it is not already running
Ctrl-Shift-F10 Sets the execution point to the line of code you choose
Alt-NUM * Highlights the next statement to be executed
F5 If not currently debugging, this runs the startup project or projects and attaches the debugger. If in break mode, this allows execution to continue (i.e., it returns to run mode).
Ctrl-F5 Runs the code without invoking the debugger. For console applications, this also arranges for the console window to stay open with a “Press any key to continue” prompt when the program finishes
F11 Executes code one statement at a time, tracing execution into function calls
Shift-F11 Executes the remaining lines of a function in which the current execution point lies
F10 Executes the next line of code but does not step into any function calls
Shift-F5 Available in break and run modes, this terminates the debugging session
Ctrl-Alt-V, T Displays the This window, which allows you to view the data members of the object associated with the current method
Ctrl-Alt-H Displays the Threads window to view all of the threads for the current process
F9 Sets or removes a breakpoint at the current line
Ctrl-F11 Displays the disassembly information for the current source file. Available only in break mode
Ctrl-Alt-W, 1 Displays the Watch 1 window to view the values of variables or watch expressions
Ctrl-Alt-W, 2 Displays the Watch 2 window
Ctrl-Alt-W, 3 Displays the Watch 3 window
Ctrl-Alt-W, 4 Displays the Watch 4 window
Ctrl-Alt-P Displays the Processes dialog, which allows you to attach or detach the debugger to one or more running processes
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