How to get OS information from minidump crash ?

Question

I am trying to debug a minidump crash dump. How can I get to know the OS so that I may download related Microsoft Symbols?

I am using Visual studio and windbg.

Answer 1

The dump contains enough information so that the symbol server client will load download and use the symbols that match the executable and dlls.

I.e. define environment variable _NT_SYMBOL_PATH to something like:

symsrv*symsrv.dll*h:\Symbols*http://referencesource.microsoft.com/symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

where h:\symbols is a writeable folder. The debugging tools will do the rest.

Note:

• You need to do it this way because patches, including service packs, also change the version of the symbols.
• The first download location is used for .NET with source server, if not working with .NET that can be removed.

Answer 2

vertarget will tell you the target machine of the minidump.

Answer 3

I haven't seen that syntax for the MS symbol server before, I usually just do:

.symfix h:\symbols .reload

From within the debugging session. It automatically sets your symbol search path to point to the symbol server so you don't have to worry about remembering the path.

-scott