Debugging Vista Sidebar with Visual studio

How to Debugging Vista Sidebar with Visual studio

Tech Advice 1

↣ Debugging Windows Vista sidebar with the help of Visual Studio is a difficult task.
↣ However, in this article, I will try to make this task easier by sharing my wealth of knowledge with everyone.
↣ In order to perform debugging, you will need to have Visual Studio installed.
↣ At present, Visual Studio 2005 is the latest version. Don’t use Beta versions.
↣ Also, you need to have a non-working Vista Gadget where you can perform the operation.

Important Step: Enable Script Debugging

↣ First of all, you need to “Disable script debugging” from Internet Explorer’s Option Panel.
↣ Go to Internet Explorer’s Option Panel and Select the Advanced Tab. Uncheck “Disable script debugging”.
↣ Turn on this option after you have successfully debugged the Vista Gadget.

Second Step: Open the Gadget Code

↣ After successful installation of the Gadget, Windows will unpack & copy the files to a folder in your user profile.
↣ Paste the following code into the address bar of windows explorer:
↣ %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets
↣ Press ENTER Key and you will find the names of Gadgets installed on your computer.
↣ Select the one that you want to debug and open the javascript file for the same in Visual Studio 2005

Third Step: Attach to Sidebar Process

↣ Select “Attach to Process” option from the Tools Menu of Visual Studio 2005. Make sure the Gadget us running before performing this step.
↣ You can also press CTRL+ALT+P to open up the dialog window
↣ Search for “sidebar.exe” and click the Attach button to attach the process.
↣ Search for “sidebar.exe” and click the Attach button to attach the process.

Final Step:

↣ This step is very important, so pay close attention to it. Click to set a breakpoint just to the left of the white area.
↣ If everything works fine, you will be instantly taken to a new file that looks something like x-gadget:///main.js.
↣ After you hit the breakpoint, your debugging tool will immediately become active.

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