I often use VS 2019 (16.8.5) to profile applications developed with Qt on Windows (10). I've got it configured as an external tool in Qt Creator.
However, every time I open it by just running devenv.exe, I have to go through the same process of clicking "Continue with No Code" on the startup welcome screen, then selecting Debug → Performance Profiler from the menu. I'd like to automate that as much as possible.
So my question is: Is there any way, from the command line, to start the IDE, skip that welcome screen, and go straight to the profiler? If not, can I at least skip the welcome screen?
I looked in the manual but couldn't find anything that seemed to do the job (/NoSplash doesn't skip the welcome screen, btw). However, I noticed that the output of devenv.exe /? in the console listed a slightly different option set, and also there's the /Command switch (which I also read the docs for), and both of these together, combined with past experience, lower my confidence in the completeness of the documentation there. I also found Running the Visual Studio Profiler from the command line but it discusses using the command-line profiler directly; I want to run the graphical profiler in the IDE, though.
If there's no way via devenv.exe, is there maybe some other way to automate this? And if there is a way, the bonus question is: Can I go further than just opening the profiler and actually start profiling given an executable filename or a running PID?
You can start VS and open the profiler like this:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /Command Debug.DiagnosticsHub.Launch
It is easy to configure Visual Studio Code to your liking through its various settings. Nearly every part of VS Code's editor, user interface, and functional behavior has options you can modify.
in order to stop the welcome screen do the following things
go to File > Preferences > Settings
search "Startup Editor"
choose "None" from the drop-down menu
in order to edit / make a new screen when app started follow the below steps
go to File > Preferences > Settings
search "Startup Editor"
choose "NewUntitleFile" from the drop-down menu
Setup your own file
I have a problem with VS2013. I'm trying to write a program in vc++ using opencv and in vs2013 update 4 IDE. the problem is as I just type these lines, my computer freezes. infact the hard activity runs to 100 percent and never stops untill restart. even when I (hardly) close VS and even when I logged off, hard disk activity is still at maximum. the code is:
#include <iostream>
#include <stdio.h>
#include "opencv2/core/core.hpp"
#include "opencv2/features2d/features2d.hpp"
It seems that the last line makes the problem.
FYI I have tried and run lots of OpenCV examples in VS2013.
And when I tried the code above on VS2012 on another computer it works well, but on VS2013 on another computer it again freezes just like my computer.
So what's wrong here?
The problem may point to several performance issues in VS2013, please try each one of the following separately until overcoming the issue:
Disabling Synchronized Settings: Go to Tools -> Options -> Environment-> Synchronized Settings and remove this option by unchecking the checkbox.
Set Current source control plug-in to None: Tools > Options > Source
Control
Clear the "Use hardware graphics acceleration if available" check
box to prevent the use of hardware graphics acceleration : Tools -> Options -> Environment-> General , make sure "Automatically adjust visual experience based on client performance" is cleared too.
Note: You can select or clear the "Enable rich client visual experience" check box to make sure that rich visuals are always on or off, respectively. When this check box is selected, rich visuals are used independent of the computer environment. For example, rich visuals are used when you run Visual Studio locally on a rich client and over remote desktop. it may help too.
Try deleting the solution's .suo file (it's next to the .sln file),
closing and re-opening Visual Studio
Is there a way to run same test(for example Lightweight Hotspots) multiple times in Intel VTune Amplifier XE ??? It is annoying to do multiple clicks to perform a single test. I have looked though documentation, but found nothing.
Thanks !
There are two things to advice:
First, once you have set up a project and collected Lightweight Hotspots for it, you should be able to just right-click the project in the Project Navigator (if you are using the standalone GUI) or Solution Explorer (if you are using Visual Studio integration) and click the recently used analysis type to run it again.
Second, if you are running really many collections, it may be that using amplxe-cl command line is the way to go. The easiest way to set up the command line to collect the data is to use Get Command Line dialog available from New Analysis window by clicking a button at the right-bottom corner. A copy-paste to a console should be mostly enough.
A couple of screenshot below should support the two bullets above.
Running a recent analysis again from Project Navigator:
Generating a command line for VTune collection with amplxe-cl:
I am trying to measure the performance of some functions and methods of a console application project in Visual Studio 2010.
I configured the profiling method to instrumentation. The problem is that the performance monitor doesn't work. The message that I get to the output is:
Profiling started.
Instrumenting w:\MyProject\ProfilingTest\Build\Debug\ProfilingTest.exe in place
Info VSP3049: Small functions will be excluded from instrumentation.
Microsoft (R) VSInstr Post-Link Instrumentation 10.0.40219 x64
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. All rights reserved.
File to Process:
w:\MyProject\ProfilingTest\Build\Debug\ProfilingTest.exe --> w:\MyProject\ProfilingTest\Build\Debug\ProfilingTest.exe
Original file backed up to w:\MyProject\ProfilingTest\Build\Debug\ProfilingTest.exe.orig
Successfully instrumented file w:\MyProject\ProfilingTest\Build\Debug\ProfilingTest.exe.
The process cannot access the file 'w:\MyProject\ProfilingTest\Build\Debug\ProfilingTest.exe' because it is being used by another process.
Data written to w:\MyProject\ProfilingTest\ProfilingTest110611(17).vsp.
Profiling finished.
File contains no data buffers
File contains no data buffers
Analysis failed
The process cannot access the file 'w:\MyProject\ProfilingTest\Build\Debug\ProfilingTest.exe' because it is being used by another process.
Profiling complete.
I presume that the "root of all evil" is:
The process cannot access the file '...' because it is being used by another process.
Did anybody faced such problems trying to profile native applications developed in Visual Studio 2010 and solve them?
Later add:
If, instead of choosing a project to profile, I am choosing directly the built executable, I succeed to profile, without receiving process blocking, I even received the file analysis. However, the monitoring application is crashing at the end of the profiling. I suspect is related to IDE, but I can't tell for sure.
from the performance wizard choose executable as your target and give the path to the executable. This solved problem for me.
Use process explorer's find handle feature (ctrl + F) to figure out which process has ProfilingTest.exe open. That'll get you to the next step of the troubleshooting process.
Another work-around that I found was to do the following:
1) Launch performance wizard
2) choose your project
3) un-check the box to automatically start your profiling
4) Choose "New Performance Session" and choose your project again (top button on Performance explorer window)
5) Select your performance session from "Targets" and choose "Start Profiling"
I wonder if the nice folks at Redmond have taken notice of this..
Regards.
I'm a hobbyist developer and have a background with Java (IDE of choice was Eclipse). I'm using Visual Studio Express 2010 and wanting to learn C++.
Few questions:
I create a "HelloWorld" in C++ and compiles/runs in VS/Windows. When I try to compile it under Linux/GCC, it obviously throws tons of errors. Default windows console project includes windows specific files; but if just create an "Empty Project" it throws tons of linker/build errors. What's the best practices here to keep my code portable?
Why is it creating 47 files for 8 lines of code?
How do you format code? You can do Edit->Format Selection, but the hotkeys don't work?
How do I output to VS's 'Output' Window? ( like eclipse does when you run a console java app )
It keeps reverting my "Project Location" to my "home directory" every time I restart. How do you change it? Is it a bug? Because it's Express edition?
Is there a way to keep it from switching to Debug view when it runs?
I create a "HelloWorld" in C++ and
compiles/runs in VS/Windows. When I
try to compile it under Linux/GCC, it
obviously throws tons of errors.
Default windows console project
includes windows specific files; but
if just create an "Empty Project" it
throws tons of linker/build errors.
What's the best practices here to keep
my code portable?
For portable code, avoid VS wizards entirely. Use Make/NMake if you're starting with rocks and sticks, or the portable build system of your preference (Ant, CMake, etc.) Some of these will spit out a VS solution/project file for you to use.
Why is it creating 47 files for 8
lines of code?
Wizards are magical like that.
How do you format code? You can do
Edit->Format Selection, but the
hotkeys don't work?
Ctrl-K Ctrl-F (under Edit, Advanced)
How do I output to VS's 'Output'
Window? ( like eclipse does when you
run a console java app )
Lookup OutputDebugString() for the debug window. Output window should get all cout/cerr output.
It keeps reverting my "Project
Location" to my "home directory" every
time I restart. How do you change it?
Is it a bug? Because it's Express
edition?
Probably hidden in options somewhere - don't know that one, sorry.
Is there a way to keep it from
switching to Debug view when it runs?
Launch using Ctrl+F5 to run without the debugger attached.
Have fun!
I create a "HelloWorld" in C++ and compiles/runs in VS/Windows. When I try to compile it under Linux/GCC, it obviously throws tons of errors. Default windows console project includes windows specific files; but if just create an "Empty Project" it throws tons of linker/build errors. What's the best practices here to keep my code portable?
It's fairly difficult to keep your code truly portable if you're writing Windows applications. Standard C++ will obviously work on either platform, but Linux can't run Windows applications, and vice versa. Remember that console applications are also considered Windows applications. They're not any more "pure" just because they are text-based, rather than graphical. Windows applications have their own entry point, different from the standard main function found in ANSI C++ (technically, main is still there, but it's hidden and called internally by the Windows libraries).
The best thing to do is not to link to any of the Windows headers. Unfortunately, you won't be very satisfied with the results. About all that you'll be able to generate is library code. You can't get a UI on the screen unless you use the Windows functions to do it.
An "Empty Project" is just what it says—empty. I assume the build errors are because you're trying to call functions that aren't defined anywhere. You'll find that you need to include windows.h to get off the ground, which instantly makes your code non-portable.
Why is it creating 47 files for 8 lines of code?
This is obviously an exaggeration; none of the wizards produce anywhere near that many code files. Especially not the "Empty Project", which doesn't create any at all.
A Win32 console application includes the following 5 files:
stdafx.h and stdafx.cpp — these files are used to enable "precompiled headers", meaning that Visual Studio will compile all of your headers once, and only recompile them when they change, rather than recompiling them each time you build the project. This used to provide enormous speed boosts, and still does on large projects. You probably don't need or care about this for small projects, but it's not a bad idea to get familiar with their usage if you're going to be developing in Visual Studio.
A targetver.h file, whose only purpose is to specify the earliest version of Windows that you want your application to run on. This is necessary because later versions of Windows add additional functionality that wasn't available in previous versions. Your app won't run if you link to functions or libraries that don't exist. Set this up once and then forget about it.
A <projectname>.cpp file, which is the implementation code for your application. This is pretty standard stuff—it includes the _tmain function, which is the entry point for a console app.
A ReadMe.txt file, which you can immediately delete. It contains some introductory information and describes the files that have been added to your project. (Yes, reading this yourself could have answered this question.)
A Win32 application would have a few more files, but most of the same ones as well. In particular, you'll see a resource file (with the extension .rc) that contains the icons, dialogs, bitmaps, cursors, etc. used in your program.
If you don't like this structure, you can either forgo the use of a wizard, or modify it yourself. There's nothing set in stone about it.
How do you format code? You can do Edit->Format Selection, but the hotkeys don't work?
Formatting code works fine. I'm not sure why people are telling you that Visual Studio doesn't support this, or that you'll need a third-party plug-in. There's no "Format Document" command as there is in C#, but the "Format Selection" command works just fine. The only difference is, you have to select something in order for it to be enabled.
The default keyboard extension for that command is CtrlK, Ctrl+F. It also works fine, right out of the box. My typical workflow is to hit Ctrl+A first to select all.
How do I output to VS's 'Output' Window? ( like eclipse does when you run a console java app )
I don't know what Eclipse does, nor do I know anything about Java. What do you want this to do? When and what things do you want to get written to the "Output" window? A console application will run in a console window, not in the "Output" window. That's not what it's for.
It's intended for debugging purposes. The OutputDebugString function is one way of utilizing it. The output of the standard cerr keyword should be automatically redirected to the "Output" window.
It keeps reverting my "Project Location" to my "home directory" every time I restart. How do you change it? Is it a bug? Because it's Express edition?
This isn't a bug, it's a feature. Visual Studio is designed for working with projects and solutions, not one-off code files. So by default, it prompts you to specify a project folder, a location to store your files. And what better place for the default location than your home folder?
If you don't like that location, you can change it. Under the "Tools" menu, select "Options". Expand the "Projects and Solutions" category, and click the "General" item. Then, change the path of the "Projects location" (the top textbox). Couldn't get much simpler than that.
Is there a way to keep it from switching to Debug view when it runs?
I frankly don't understand how this question makes any sense at all. When you run an application with the debugger attached, Visual Studio switches to a different window layout specifically optimized for debugging. I just answered a similar question. The upshot is that there's no way of telling Visual Studio to use the same window layout for both design and debug view, but I also can't imagine why you'd want to, either. Different things are useful, depending on what you're currently doing.
The two window layouts are customizable, and your changes are remembered. I've customized mine heavily from the defaults; it's very likely that your tastes vary as well. There are lots of great features, like the "Locals" window, which shows a listing of all the values of the local variables in scope at the point where you break into your program's execution.
Also remember that the default "Debug" and "Release" build configurations have nothing to do with whether or not Visual Studio automatically attaches the debugger to your application's process. If you want to start your app without the debugger attached, select "Start without Debugging" from the Debug menu, or press Ctrl+F5. There are lots of side effects to this though, and it's probably not what you wanted. Without the debugger attached, you lose most of what Visual Studio provides to you as an IDE. You might as well just run the app from Windows Explorer without even launching VS.
Finally, if you prefer Eclipse (or at least are already accustomed to its nuances and prefer not to learn Visual Studio's), you can still use it for C++ development. Download it here.
If you're just wanting to learn C++ and you don't necessarily care about the platform, I would probably avoid using Visual Studio to start with. Visual Studio provides some functionality for managing projects and builds, but honestly, I think you're better off learning how to manage code files and use the compiler on the command line first, then working up from there.
If you're on Windows, I'd recommend installing Cygwin and getting the GNU compiler tools through the Cygwin setup utility (gcc or g++).
This is a bit of an opinionated answer, but my experience with C++ on Windows leads me to believe that you'd be better served trying to learn C++ from more of a unix-like angle. Windows C++ adds a whole layer of crap that will just confuse you when you're getting started.