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70

answers:

3

In Visual Studio, is it possible to step into a loaded assembly when you don't have both solutions open?

That is to say, I have two solutions, and I'm trying to find a bug that only shows up in the the second one. The second one references the assemblies output from the first.

How would I load the symbols from that assembly?

+3  A: 

The debugger will load the referenced assemblies automatically... all you need to verify is that the .pdb's are in the same folder as the assemblies, and the debugger should prompt you for the location of the source files...

John Weldon
+4  A: 

Yes, if you have the pdb in the same folder as the dll, or a symbol server.

Note that "reflector pro" (currently in preview) also offers the ability to do this (still inside VS) by decompiling the second dll on-demand

Marc Gravell
+1 for reflector :)
John Weldon
Thanks. Guess what the bug was... I'll give you a minute... (`a.HasValue` is not the same as `!a.HasValue`)
John Gietzen
Well, it wouldn't have been in any of my first 5 guesses, but... ;-p
Marc Gravell
+2  A: 

another option is to load PDBs manually through Tools->Options->Debugging->Symbol dialog. You need to do it only once VS will remember them the next time

mfeingold