Question

I am debugging a Windows service (by hitting F5 in Visual Studio 2010) using the following code:

In Program.cs file:

static void Main() {

    if (!Environment.UserInteractive) {
        // We are not in debug mode, startup as service

        ServiceBase[] ServicesToRun;
        ServicesToRun = new ServiceBase[] { new MyServer() };
        ServiceBase.Run(ServicesToRun);
    } 
    else {
        // We are in debug mode, startup as application

        MyServer service = new MyServer();
        service.StartService();
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(System.Threading.Timeout.Infinite);
    }
}

And in MyServer.cs file:

public void StartService() {
    this.OnStart(new string[0]);
}

In the past, I used the Debug.WriteLine("xxx") line without any problem in all my service code, but now I noticed that all Debug.WriteLine() lines are not called anymore.

I clearly see that the debugger is jumping over these lines when I debug with Step Into (F11) – (thus, there is no output text on the output Window), whereas the service is correctly started in “debug mode”.

I don’t understand why the Debug code won’t be called. Suggestions?

I build my solution in debug mode (Define DEBUG constant is checked), but I noticed that the code surrounded by #if DEBUG ... #endif is not called. That is weird…

Answer 1

Seems the Debug symbols are missing.

1. Clean your solution, restart Visual Studio, rebuild the solution.
2. Make sure the Configuration Manager is in Debug mode.
3. Check in Tools > Options > Debugging and Uncheck “Enable Just My Code”

Happened to me and this seemed to help.