Visual Studio - Attach to process shortcut

Question

When I want to debug I have to do Debug->Attach to Process -> Look for a process in the list -> Attach.

I was wondering if I can create some kind of a shortcut to

Answer 1

VS extensions

• Debug Attach Manager
• ReAttach
• Resurrect

More: Search the VS Marketplace for "attach"

Keyboard

• The attach to process shortcut is Ctrl+Alt+P in Visual Studio 2005 and above. You can then press the first letter of the process name you want, e.g. w for w3wp.exe and it'll jump to that, then Enter to attach.
• You can use the Alt key shortcut ALT+D,P to launch the "Attach to Process" window via Debug menu.

Code

• Add System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Launch() to your code

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Current release is VS2015 at time of writing.

Go ahead and edit/extend this answer :-)

Answer 2

This answer should work for Visual Studio 2010.

I like having buttons to do this on my debug toolbar

https://gist.github.com/1406827

The gist contains a method for attaching to IIS (w3wp.exe) or ASP (aspnet_wp.exe) and also nunit (nunit-agent.exe). Instructions are included on how to add the macros to your debug toolbar.

Answer 3

For Visual Studio 2017, 2019, there is a ReAttach extension available. Very handy.

Answer 4

The easiest way to do this is to write a macro which finds the DTE.LocalProcess you wan to target and automatically attach. For example

Public Sub AttachShortcut()
  For Each proc In DTE.Debugger.LocalProcesses 
    If proc.Name = "what you're looking for" Then
      proc.Attach()
      Exit Sub
    End IF
  Next
End Sub

Note: This Stack Overflow Question is related and has a sample you may find useful

• Attaching to a child process automatically in Visual Studio during Debugging

Answer 5

The shortcut is Ctrl+Alt+P in Visual Studio 2005 and above.

Answer 6

Alt+Shift+P to reattach the last attached process.

It works for me in Visual Studio 2017.