Knowledgebase

Generating Dump Files on 64-bit Windows

Windows Task Manager can generate dump files, which can be analyzed to help diagnose software problems. By default, Task Manager creates 64-bit dumps even if the source is a 32-bit process. This type of dump (a 64-bit dump of 32-bit process) is difficult to debug because only windbg supports them and not all the functionality is available.

An alternative version of Task Manager, taskmgr.exe, is available in the c:\windows\syswow64 folder. This version creates 32-bit dumps of 32-bit processes, which allows for more thorough debugging.

Another utility, procdump, will automatically create the preferred dump format for all processes. To read about this utility and download it, visit:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/dd996900

The usage and parameters are documented at the link provided above. Several parameters useful for debugging include:

• -c - CPU threshold at which to create a dump of the process.
• -m - Memory commit threshold in MB at which to create a dump of the process.
• -t - Write a dump when the process terminates.

For example, to write up to 3 mini dumps of a process named 'consume' when it exceeds 20% CPU usage for five seconds:

   
C:\>procdump -c 20 -s 5 -n 3 consume