How to get information about what code is running in a thread?

Question

I have a Window Forms application (using clickonce installation, running on a terminal server) that occasionaly ends up with a thread that appears to be running in a tight loop. The user doesn't know this happens as the app continues to run as expected. Also I have determined that I can kill the problem thread without any apparent affect on the app.

I can use Process Explorer to find the instance of an app with the problem and can isolate the thread with the problem but haven't found any way to look into the thread to find anything that would help me determine what is causing the problem. Does anyone know of a way to some additional information about a thread, like maybe strings, that would help me zero in on the issue?

Thanks, Dave

Answer 1

Haven't tried this myself but "Process Monitor" claims it "shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity"

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

You should be able to attach Visual Studio to the running process to get more information. Provided the .pdb files are included with the application and you have source code for the avialable version you should be able to use the Threads window combined with pausing / stepping through to see just what the code is doing.