Attach to debugger script and shortcut

I got sick of manually attaching to the webserver (either aspnet_wp.exe on WinXP or w3wp.exe on Win2003 or later). You can have a macro for that, incl. a shortcut key. I got this from somewhere on the web, but forgot where. If I find out, I’ll of course post it here. But I constantly have to search my sent items in Outlook for this bit of script when I tell someone about this. So here it’s on my weblog.

• Press ALT-F11 (Macro IDE)
  A new Windows pops up
• In the Project Explorer on the left, choose “Add new Item”
• Choose a Module and name it “AttachToWebServer”
• Paste the code below (and overwrite anything that was already there)
• Close this Window
• In Visual Studio, do “Tools” -> “Options” -> “Environment” -> “Keyboard”
• In the textbox for “Show commands containing” type “AttachToWebServer”
• In the “Press shortcut keys” press ALT F10
  It’s currently bound to something you’re not using anyway 😉
• Press “Assign” and “Ok”

Now go to your web application project and press ALT+F10 and you’re in debug mode, attached to the webserver. Press F5 in your browser (of course in the correct website) and you’re done!

Here’s the code:

Imports System Imports EnvDTE80 Imports System.Diagnostics

Public Module AttachToWebServer

Public Sub AttachToWebServer()

    Dim AspNetWp As String = "aspnet_wp.exe"
    Dim W3WP As String = "w3wp.exe"

    If Not (AttachToProcess(AspNetWp)) Then
        If Not AttachToProcess(W3WP) Then
            System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(String.Format("Process {0} or {1} Cannot Be Found", AspNetWp, W3WP), "Attach To Web Server Macro")
        End If
    End If

End Sub

Public Function AttachToProcess(ByVal ProcessName As String) As Boolean

    Dim Processes As EnvDTE.Processes = DTE.Debugger.LocalProcesses
    Dim Process As EnvDTE.Process
    Dim ProcessFound As Boolean = False

    For Each Process In Processes
        If (Process.Name.Substring(Process.Name.LastIndexOf("") + 1) = ProcessName) Then
            Process.Attach()
            ProcessFound = True
        End If
    Next

    AttachToProcess = ProcessFound

End Function

End Module