Commands in Visual Studio
Most menu and toolbar commands are the same for both the stand-alone version and the integrated version, with a few differences. Below is a presentation of all the commands available from within Visual Studio:
Commands on the File menu:
Command | Description | |
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Open->File | The Open->File command in Visual Studio can be used to open a previously saved session file. Currently there is no entry for Profiler Sessions in the Files of Type dropdown list. To select a profiler session, select All files in the list. |
Commands on the Edit menu:
Command | Description | |
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Copy | Copies data from the selected item in the currently selected control to the clipboard. For more information see Copying Data to the Clipboard. | |
Copy All | Copies all data from the currently selected control to the clipboard. For more information see Copying Data to the Clipboard. |
Commands on the View menu:
Command | Description | |
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Show Allocs and Bytes per Second | This command affects all columns and fields that present the number of allocations performed and bytes allocated. If this command is checked, the values of those fields and columns will be divided by the elapsed time between the snapshots. Otherwise the actual allocation- and byte-count will be presented. |
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Show Heap Utilization as Percent | This command affects all columns and fields that present information about the heap utilization. If this command is checked, those fields and numbers will be presented as percentages of the total number of allocations performed between snapshots. Otherwise, the way they are presented is determined by the Show Allocs and Bytes per Second setting. This command is only available if heap utilization tracking is enabled. For more information, see Heap Utilization Tracker. |
Show [Field set] | Allows you to select how the heap information should be presented. It will affect which columns are shown in the tables and how the fields in the info panels are presented. For more information see Field Sets. | |
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Show Failed Memory Assertions | If at least one memory assertion has failed, this command will bring up a dialog that allows you to view information about the failed memory assertions. |
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Details Back | Steps back to the previously shown information. This can, for instance, be useful if you want to look at the details of a referrer of an instance and then get back to the original instance. |
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Details Forward | Steps forward through details information previously left using Details Back. |
Show Details Show Source |
Shows details about the selected item. If the selected item is a type or resource, the type/resource details page will be shown, if it is an instance, the instance details page will be shown. If the selected item is a method (in a call stack) and source file information is available, this command will be named Show source and will show the source of the method when selected. | |
Call stack functions | Defines which functions/methods should be included when viewing call stacks. The available options are: Source, Publically visible, and All. | |
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Show conditional formatting | Enables or disables conditional formatting in the Overview page. Conditional formatting indicates how a presented cell value relates to the total (or max) value of a column, and whether the value has increased or decreased since the comparison snapshot. |
Use totals for conditional formatting | Determines if the total value of a column should be used for conditional formatting. If not selected, the maximum value is used instead. | |
Profiler Layout->Column chooser | Opens the column chooser window. For more information, see Column Layout and Customization. | |
Profiler Layout->Auto-adjust column widths | Toggles auto-adjustment of table columns. For more information, see Column Layout and Customization. | |
Profiler Layout->Reset layout | Resets the layout of columns and tool windows. For more information, see Column Layout and Customization. |
Command on the View->Other Windows menu
Command | Description | |
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Profiler Projects Explorer (Professional and Enterprise only) |
Shows the Profiler Projects Explorer window. For more information, see Profiler Projects. |
Commands on the Profiler menu:
Command | Description | |
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Start Memory Profiler | Starts profiling the start-up project of the loaded solution. For more information, see Start Profiling a Project. |
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Debug with Memory Profiler (Professional and Enterprise only) |
Starts profiling the start-up project of the loaded solution, under the Visual Studio debugger. For more information, see Debug Profiling. |
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Launch using Memory Profiler Project (Professional and Enterprise only) |
Starts profiling using the settings from the currently active profiler project. For more information, see Profiler Projects and the “How to…” topic Start Profiling using a Profiler Project. |
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Run Tests under Profiler (Enterprise only) |
Creates a unit test session under which all Visual Studio unit tests will be run. For more information, see Run Tests under the Profiler. |
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Profile Application | Starts a wizard that helps you profile a stand-alone application. For more information, see Start Profiling an Application. |
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Profile ASP.NET | Starts a wizard that helps you profile an ASP.NET application. For more information, see Start Profiling ASP.NET. |
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Profile Windows Store App | Starts profiling a Windows Store App with the help of a wizard. For more information, see Start Profiling a Windows Store App. |
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Profile Silverlight application | Start profiling a Silverlight application with the help of a wizard. For more information, see Start Profiling a Silverlight Application. |
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Profile WPF browser application | Starts profiling a WPF browser application with the help of a wizard. For more information, see Start Profiling a WPF Browser Application. |
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Profile Windows Service | Starts a wizard that allows you to profile a Windows Service. For more information, see Start Profiling a Windows Service. |
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Attach Profiler to Process (Professional and Enterprise only) |
Starts a wizard that allows you to attach the profiler to a running .NET process. For more information, see Attach to a Process. |
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Import Memory Dump (Professional and Enterprise only) |
Starts a wizard that allows you to import memory dump files as heap snapshots. For more information, see Import Memory Dump Files. |
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Start | Restarts a profiler session. This command is only available after an active session has been stopped. |
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Stop | Stops the currently active profiler session. |
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Collect Heap Snapshot | Collects a snapshot of the GC heap and native memory. The results will be presented under the snapshot pages. |
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Collect Inspection Heap Snapshot | Collects a snapshot of the GC heap and native memory without doing any garbage collect. For more information, see Heap Utilization Tracker. |
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Save Snapshot | Saves the latest collected snapshot in a temporary profiler session file. |
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Collect peak snapshot (Professional and Enterprise only) |
Collects the current peak snapshot. If a higher peak is detected after the current peak has been collected, an additional peak snapshot will be collected when the session ends. For more information, see Peak Snapshots. |
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Reset peak (Professional and Enterprise only) |
Resets the current peak snapshot. New peak snapshot information will be collected at the next garbage collection. For more information, see Peak Snapshots. |
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Track peak snapshots (Professional and Enterprise only) |
Enables and disables peak snapshot collection. When enabled, temporary snapshot information will be stored each time a new peak has been detected and a peak snapshot will be collected when the session ends. For more information, see Peak Snapshots. |
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Manage ignored analysis issues | Opens the Ignored Analysis Issue window, which can be used to view and modify the ignored analysis issues. For more information, see Modifying Ignored Issues. |
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Ignore framework issues | Ignores analysis issues that are caused by the .NET Framework. For more information, see Ignoring Framework Issues. |
Auto-detect duplicates | Defines how duplicates should be automatically detected by the memory analyser. The options are: None, Only trivial and All. For more information, see Duplicate Instances Detection. | |
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Detect duplicates | Starts investigation of all duplicate instances. For more information, see Duplicate Instances Detection. |
Only detect trivial duplicates | Limits the duplicate instances analyser to only detect trivial duplicates. This can speed up the analysis significantly, but all duplicates will not be detected. | |
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Manage filters | Opens the Manage filters window. For more information, see Saving and Managing Filters. |
Rename Snapshot | Renames a previously saved snapshot. This command is only available if the selected snapshot has been saved and you are currently profiling a process. |
Commands on the Profiler->Project menu:
Command | Description | |
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New Profiler Project (Professional and Enterprise only) |
Starts a wizard that allows you to create a new profiler project. For more information, see Profiler Projects and the “How to…” topic Create or Load a Profiler Project. |
Load Profiler Project (Professional and Enterprise only) |
Opens a profiler project and includes it in the profiler projects explorer window. For more information, see Profiler Projects and the “How to…” topic Create or Load a Profiler Project. | |
Save Profiler Project (Professional and Enterprise only) |
Saves the project that is currently selected in the profiler projects explorer. | |
Save Profiler Project As (Professional and Enterprise only) |
Saves the project that is currently selected in the profiler projects explorer to a new file. |
In order to reduce the number of commands in the menus of Visual Studio, several of the profiler commands are only visible when a profiler session is shown in the active document window.
The most commonly used commands are also available in two Visual Studio toolbars: Memory Profiler Control and Memory Profiler Launcher.