Debugging iLogic under Windows 10

A while ago I posted on debugging methods using SysInternals DebugView.  Well, this past week IT upgraded my machine from Windows 8.1 to 10 and with a few small exceptions things have been working well.

Until I went to begin debugging an iLogic rule and while DebugView launched fine and loaded my existing filters like a champ, it just sat there with a blank look on it's face.

I'd have sooner given up my right arm than agree to forego DebugView on the new platform.  I immediately reached out to a team member who I knew had been on Win10 for a while and uses DebugView daily.  "No problem here", he states...crap, the problem is local.  Or maybe not...


Like most when faced with a quandary of monumental proportion, I did a Google search and came up with the following post on Sysinternals forum:

Topic: DbgView and Windows 10

The first post almost broke my heart.  Not compatible with Windows 10?  Are you kidding me?

Fear not, keep reading...

About 2/3's down the page alanadams had an interesting comment about his experience with the problem. It seems that DebugView silently installs a .sys file in the ...\System32\Drivers folder.  Once there it seems that Windows keeps it from being written again because Windows says the driver is already running.

The solution?  Rename the original dbgv.sys file, then restart DebugView.  For some reason that seems to pacify Windows and lets DebugView run normally.  Who knew?

alanadams claimed, (at least for him), that this only fixes DebugView for that session and the step may need to be repeated, but for me at least DebugView continues to run even after several restarts including reboots.

I also run DebugView as Administrator just because I can, not necessarily because I need to.

So, hopefully you're like my fellow co-worker and DebugView works right out of the box, but if not you now have something to potential ease the pain.

Happy Coding,