WinDbg Preview FAQ

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We've had a ton of comments on our last blog post and social media, so here's some of the top questions we've been seeing. We'll be expanding this as more questions are asked and we have better answers.

The store is saying the app is unavailable?

Please comment in the comments below with your location and full OS version. There were some availability issues yesterday, but they should all be resolved.

What's missing?

There's a few larger things that are missing:

  • Command Browser
  • Scratchpad
  • Modules window
  • Event filters window

Besides those, there's a few command-line options, menu options. and settings that are missing. If you want use to prioritize something that you use often, go file or upvote feedback in the Feedback Hub.

Why aren't my workspaces working?

We're in the process of changing how workspaces work in WinDbg Preview. In WinDbg, workspaces save lots of different information that can be difficult to keep track of. We want to make workspaces easier to control and use.

We'd love your feedback on workspaces, so feel free to give us your thoughts in the Feedback Hub.

WinDbg Preview does ____ slightly different than WinDbg does, is that on purpose?

Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, no. If something works differently than you expect, send it to us in the Feedback Hub, and we can take a look at it. Some places we've changed behavior on purpose, as we try to improve the debugging experience, and we want to hear feedback what changes are good and bad. Putting your feedback in the Feedback Hub will help us know if we should change it back.

Where can I find USBView and all the other executables that ship with WinDbg?

The store version only has WinDbg right now. If you want any of the other tools that ship with the debugger package, you can find them in the SDK or WDK.

Is WinDbg going away?

Not yet, but we hope that someday soon WinDbg Preview will be better than WinDbg in almost every way! You can still get WinDbg in the SDK or WDK for the time being. As we finish adding more features to WinDbg Preview to make it more like WinDbg, we'll be looking at replacing WinDbg. So if you have any major problems in WinDbg Preview, make sure your voice is heard by putting them in the Feedback Hub!

Why is it only in the Windows Store?

The store lets us release updates quickly and automatically and helps ensure that everyone giving us feedback is on a recent version. One of the problems with WinDbg today is that people will tell us something is broken when they’re running a version from years ago. With how quickly we’re hoping to fix bugs and add features early on in the preview, we need people to be able to seamlessly get the latest and greatest version. We’ll be looking at adding it to the SDK and WDK as soon as we’re more comfortable with the stability and features.