Question

Scenario:

• Delphi ISAPI dll written using Delphi XE, 32 Bit.

  ISAPI dll is running through IIS 7.5 on a Win 7 64 enterprise desktop
  machine.

  DLL runs fine.

  Debug the ISAPI DLL in the Delphi XE IDE by using Run->Attach to
  Process:

  Launch the ISAPI DLL and attach to the wpw3.exe *32 process in the
  debugger – can trace and debug code as it runs in the ISAPI context.

Problem:

• My hard drive died last week and I got a new Win 7 installation – the
  standard corporate wide Win 7 64 Enterprise image (not the same as my
  previous Win 7 64 installation).

  Now, when I go into Run->Attach to Process, I no longer see the
  wpw3.exe *32 process by name, although it is visible in task manager
  by name. Invoking the ‘show system processes’ option on the ‘Attach to
  Process’ Dialog box does not help.

  What I DO see now (which I never saw before in my old deployment) is
  a long list of ‘generic’ System process with PID’s but no
  descriptions other than ‘System’.

  One of these processes is my wpw3.exe *32 process, and I have identified
  its PID using MS’s Process Explorer. But if I try to attach to
  that process I get an error message – ‘Cannot create process –
  access denied’ – so I can’t debug. (Same error message ‘Error
  Opening process, Access denied’ also shows in Process Explorer for
  certain properties, although the descriptive name of the process ‘
  wpw3.exe *32’ is visible there, associated with the PID.)

  How can I get the Run->Attach to process dialog box to display the
  proper wpw3.exe *32 process name and attach to it, so I can debug?

  Is this a Delphi problem? An IIS problem? An ISAPI problem? Is this one problem – ie lack of descriptive process name and inability to attach to process are caused by same problem; or is this two problems: one problem being lack of descriptive name, another the inability to attach to the process?

  (Do not want to use – cannot really use – webApp debugger for this –
  these are ISAPI dll’s that are deployed to production exactly as they
  are written and debugged in IIS – I need to see them running in IIS
  context.)

• Been debugging ISAPI dll’s for several years this way, with different versions of Delphi and in various OS and server environments without any problems – never encountered this problem before. I am stumped.

Answer 1

My account has admin rights, but it hit me that I should try running DelphiXE as an admin – launch it with the ‘run as administrator’ option.

I got prompted ‘do you want to allow…’ – clicked yes and Delphi ran. Set up my process and hooked in and traced through my code – process names now visible and I can attach to my IIS process and debug in the Delphi Debugger.

I did not have to go through this step in my previous deployment, for whatever reason – but problem solved.