Defrag Tools

Building your USB thumbdrive

Welcome to the first episode of Defrag Tools where Andrew Richards and I will be walking you through the tools we use when troubleshooting Windows PC's. Each week we'll dive into the tools from SysInternals, showing you how to use them along with our best tips and tricks. In this episode we'll be showing you how to get started by creating a thumb drive that you can use to fix PC's and troubleshoot problems.

Jul 31, 2012

Process Explorer

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew and I walk you through Sysinternals Process Explorer. Process Explorer is a comprehensive replacement for Task Manager. It allows you to view the details of the processes running on the computer, both at a point in time and historically. The performance graphs allow you to view the CPU, I/O, Memory and GPU usage. Process Explorer can be used to find file locks, loaded DLLs, autostart locations, and many more things.

Aug 6, 2012

Process Monitor

In this 2 part episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew and I walk you through Sysinternals Process Monitor. Process Monitor allows you to view the File, Registy, Network, Process and Profiling details of the processes running on the computer. The logging allows you to go from a holistic view all the way down to the function in the stack that initiated an event. Process Monitor can be used to troubleshoot nearly all types of issues. As coined by David Solomon - "When in doubt, run Process Monitor".

Aug 13, 2012

Process Monitor - Examples

In this 2 part episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew and I walk you through Sysinternals Process Monitor. Process Monitor allows you to view the File, Registy, Network, Process and Profiling details of the processes running on the computer. The logging allows you to go from a holistic view all the way down to the function in the stack that initiated an event. Process Monitor can be used to troubleshoot nearly all types of issues. As coined by David Solomon - "When in doubt, run Process Monitor".

Aug 20, 2012

Autoruns and MSConfig

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Chad and I walk you through Sysinternals Autoruns. We also look at its predecessors: MSConfig and SysEdit. AutoRuns and MSConfig allow you to view and disable autostart entries on the computer. The autostart entries are locations in the registry and file system that can cause applications and DLLs to be automatically run at startup, login, application launch, and at many more registration points in Windows.

Aug 27, 2012

RAMMap

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew and I walk you through Sysinternals RAMMap. RAMMap allows you to see how the Physical Memory (RAM) on the computer is being used. You can see how much RAM there is, for what purpose it is being used, and if there has been any memory pressure (not enough memory). We also cover a lot of Memory Management theory to understand the data in RAMMap.

Sep 4, 2012

VMMap

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew and I walk you through Sysinternals VMMap. VMMap allows you to see how the Virtual Memory of a process is being used. You can see how much is used, for what purpose it is being used, and if there has been any memory leaks. Like last week with RAMMap, we cover some Memory Management theory to understand the data in VMMap.

Sep 10, 2012

Mark Russinovich

Mark Russinovich joins Andrew Richards and Larry Larsen on this episode of Defrag Tools to talk about the history of Sysinternals, his involvement with the Windows Internals book series and advice on Cybersecurity. Learn about new tools, retired tools and tools that never got completed. Get advice on troubleshooting. Get advice on how to survive a cyber attack. And much much more...

Sep 21, 2012

ProcDump

In this 3 part episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Larry Larsen walk you through Sysinternals ProcDump. ProcDump allows you to capture the memory of a process running on the computer. The dump file can be of varying size and can be taken with varying outage durations. Dumps can be triggered immediately or can be triggered by a variety of events including CPU utilization, Memory utilization, a Performance Counter, a Hung Window and/or Native/Managed exceptions.

Sep 24, 2012

ProcDump - Triggers

In this 3 part episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Larry Larsen walk you through Sysinternals ProcDump. ProcDump allows you to capture the memory of a process running on the computer. The dump file can be of varying size and can be taken with varying outage durations. Dumps can be triggered immediately or can be triggered by a variety of events including CPU utilization, Memory utilization, a Performance Counter, a Hung Window and/or Native/Managed exceptions.

Oct 1, 2012

ProcDump - Windows 8 & Process Monitor

In this 3 part episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Larry Larsen walk you through Sysinternals ProcDump. ProcDump allows you to capture the memory of a process running on the computer. The dump file can be of varying size and can be taken with varying outage durations. Dumps can be triggered immediately or can be triggered by a variety of events including CPU utilization, Memory utilization, a Performance Counter, a Hung Window and/or Native/Managed exceptions.

Oct 8, 2012

TaskMgr and ResMon

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen walk you through Task Manager and Resource Monitor. Sometimes you can't download Sysinternals or other troubleshooting tools, at these time, you can turn to these in-box applications that allow you to investigate the computer.

Oct 15, 2012

WinDbg

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Larry Larsen start walking you through the Debugging Tools for Windows (in particular WinDbg). WinDbg is a debugger that supports user mode debugging of a process, or kernel mode debugging of a computer. This first WinDbg installment configures the system to open dumps files via an adjusted Context Menu. It shows how to set WinDbg as the (AeDebug) postmortem debugger, and how to use ProcDump v5.1 to do the same but capture the process as a dump file. It then starts to explain some basic concepts of debugging: call stacks (k), registers (r) and exception context records (.ecxr). Make sure you watch Defrag Tools Episode #1 for instructions on how to get the Debugging Tools for Windows and how to set the required environment variables for symbols and source code resolution.

Oct 22, 2012

WinDbg - SOS

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Larry Larsen continue looking at the Debugging Tools for Windows (in particular WinDbg). WinDbg is a debugger that supports user mode debugging of a process, or kernel mode debugging of a computer. This installment shows how you can view the user mode call stack and stack variables in a native, managed (.NET) or Silverlight process. We use these commands: dv dt !sos.dumpstack !sos.dumpstackobjects / !sos.dso !sos.dumpobj / !sos.do !sos.printexception / !sos.pe .frame .f+ .f- .load .unload .loadby .chain lm / lmm / lmvm .extmatch .prefer_dml 1 .lines .ecxr .cls Make sure you watch Defrag Tools Episode #1 for instructions on how to get the Debugging Tools for Windows and how to set the required environment variables for symbols and source code resolution.

Nov 12, 2012

WinDbg - Bugchecks (BSOD)

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen discuss analyzing kernel mode bugchecks (colloquially known as Blue Screens of Death) using WinDbg from the Debugging Tools For Windows. We use these commands: !analyze -v .hh .trap !pte !process !thread .formats .process .thread k ~ .reload Make sure you watch Defrag Tools Episode #1 for instructions on how to get the Debugging Tools for Windows and how to set the required environment variables for symbols and source code resolution.

Nov 19, 2012

WinDbg - Driver Verifier

Not all Blue Screens of Death are easy to debug! Sometimes, you need to enable extra checking to help catch a buggy device driver. In this episode of Defrag Tools, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen discuss using Driver Verifier in conjunction with WinDbg to track down a driver which is corrupting kernel mode pool memory. Debugger commands used: !analyze -v .trap ub dp dps dc kv Make sure you watch Defrag Tools Episode #1 for instructions on how to get the Debugging Tools for Windows and how to set the required environment variables for symbols and source code resolution.

Nov 26, 2012

WinDbg - Driver Verifier - Part 2

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Michael Fourre, senior test engineer from the Driver Verifier team, pays a visit to Larry Larsen and Chad Beeder in the Channel 9 studios to give us some deeper insight into this valuable tool for catching device driver bugs!

Dec 3, 2012

WinDbg - Driver Verifier - Part 3

In this followup to last week's episode of Defrag Tools, Michael Fourre, senior test engineer from the Driver Verifier team, gives us an overview of all the available verifier settings, and explains when you might need to use them.

Dec 10, 2012

WinDbg - OCA

In this week's episode of Defrag Tools, Graham McIntyre, Senior Developer from the Windows Reliability team, gives us an overview of Online Crash Analysis (OCA). Graham describes OCA and how dump collection has been enhanced in Windows 8.

Dec 17, 2012

WinDbg - Basic Commands

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue looking at the Debugging Tools for Windows (in particular WinDbg). WinDbg is a debugger that supports user mode debugging of a process, or kernel mode debugging of a computer. This installment goes over the commands used to show the state of debug session. It also shows some of the basic commands used to view process and thread information of a user mode process. We cover these commands: version vertarget | || .sympath .srcpath .exepath .extpath .chain !analyze -v .bugcheck !error ~ ~NNs ~~[TID]s ~*k ~*r !process 0 17 !threads !findstack !uniqstack !peb !teb k= <addr> <addr> <frames> dps dpu dpa dpp .reload /f .reload /user !gle !tls Make sure you watch Defrag Tools Episode #1 for instructions on how to get the Debugging Tools for Windows and how to set the required environment variables for symbols and source code resolution.

Dec 24, 2012

WinDbg - Memory User Mode

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue looking at the Debugging Tools for Windows (in particular WinDbg). WinDbg is a debugger that supports user mode debugging of a process, or kernel mode debugging of a computer. This installment goes over the commands used to show the memory used in a user mode debug session. We cover these commands: !address -summary !address <addr> !vprot <addr> !mapped_file <addr> Make sure you watch Defrag Tools Episode #1 for instructions on how to get the Debugging Tools for Windows and how to set the required environment variables for symbols and source code resolution.

Jan 1, 2013

WinDbg - Memory Kernel Mode

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue looking at the Debugging Tools for Windows (in particular WinDbg). WinDbg is a debugger that supports user mode debugging of a process, or kernel mode debugging of a computer. This installment goes over the commands used to show the memory used in a kernel mode debug session. We cover these commands: !vm !vm 1 !memusage 8 !poolused 2 !poolused 4 !poolfind <tag> !pool <addr> !pool <addr> 2 !pte Make sure you watch Defrag Tools Episode #1 for instructions on how to get the Debugging Tools for Windows and how to set the required environment variables for symbols and source code resolution.

Jan 7, 2013

Windows 8 SDK

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Larry Larsen upgrade the software we downloaded in Episode #1 to the Windows 8 (x86 &x64) and Windows RT (ARM) versions. Resources: Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows 8 Sysinternals USB3 Debugging Cable - Note, you must use a USB3 A-A cable designed for debugging, otherwise it will fry your box!

Jan 14, 2013

WinDbg - Critical Sections

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue looking at the Debugging Tools for Windows (in particular WinDbg). WinDbg is a debugger that supports user mode debugging of a process, or kernel mode debugging of a computer. This installment goes over the commands used to diagnose a Critical Section hang in a user mode application. We start with an overview of the four synchronization primitives and then delve deep in to temporary hangs, orphaned Critical Sections and deadlocks. We use these commands: ~*k ~*kv ~ ~~[TID]s !cs !cs <pointer> !locks Make sure you watch Defrag Tools Episode #1 and Defrag Tools Episode #23 for instructions on how to get the Debugging Tools for Windows and how to set the required environment variables for symbols and source code resolution.

Jan 21, 2013

WinDbg - Events

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue looking at the Debugging Tools for Windows (in particular WinDbg). WinDbg is a debugger that supports user mode debugging of a process, or kernel mode debugging of a computer. This installment goes over the commands used to diagnose an Event hang in a user mode application. We talk about single and multiple event hangs, automatic and manual events, waitable object handles and common design patterns that you will encounter. We use these commands: ~*k ~*kv ~ ~~[TID]s dp <addr> !handle !handle <handle> <mask> .dumpdebug !uniqstack !findstack <text> Make sure you watch Defrag Tools Episode #1 and Defrag Tools Episode #23 for instructions on how to get the Debugging Tools for Windows and how to set the required environment variables for symbol and source code resolution.

Jan 28, 2013

WinDbg - Semaphores, Mutexes and Timers

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue looking at the Debugging Tools for Windows (in particular WinDbg). WinDbg is a debugger that supports user mode debugging of a process, or kernel mode debugging of a computer. This installment goes over the commands used to diagnose Semaphores, Mutexes and (Waitable) Timers in a user mode application. For timers, we delve deep in to the kernel to gather more information about them. We use these commands: !handle !handle <handle> <mask> !object <name> !object <addr> !timer !timer <addr> ub @rip dt nt!_KTHREAD <addr> Make sure you watch Defrag Tools Episode #1 and Defrag Tools Episode #23 for instructions on how to get the Debugging Tools for Windows and how to set the required environment variables for symbol and source code resolution.

Feb 4, 2013

WinDbg - Configure Kernel Debugging

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue looking at the Debugging Tools for Windows (in particular WinDbg). WinDbg is a debugger that supports user mode debugging of a process, or kernel mode debugging of a computer.

Feb 11, 2013

WinDbg - Scheduling

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue looking at the Debugging Tools for Windows (in particular WinDbg). WinDbg is a debugger that supports user mode debugging of a process, or kernel mode debugging of a computer.

Feb 18, 2013

WinDbg - ETW Logging

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue looking at the Debugging Tools for Windows (in particular WinDbg). WinDbg is a debugger that supports user mode debugging of a process, or kernel mode debugging of a computer.

Feb 25, 2013

MCTS Windows Internals

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen review MCP exam 70-660 - MCTS Windows Internals.

Mar 4, 2013

ZoomIt

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen walk you through Sysinternals ZoomIt. ZoomIt is a screen zoom and annotation tool for technical presentations that include application demonstrations. ZoomIt runs unobtrusively in the tray and activates with customizable hotkeys to zoom in on an area of the screen, move around while zoomed, and draw on the zoomed image.

Mar 11, 2013

Desktops

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen walk you through Sysinternals Desktops. Desktops allows you to organize your applications on up to four virtual desktops. We go under the covers and show how Desktops fits in to the Session, Window Station and Desktop object/security model. ** I didn't do a great job explaining Sessions/Window Stations/Desktops -- If you want to know about those concepts in detail, I suggest you watch Sysinternals Primer: Gems instead.

Mar 18, 2013

CLR GC - Part 1

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Maoni Stephens and Larry Larsen walk you through the CLR Garbage Collector. Maoni is the Principal developer for the GC on the CLR team.

Mar 25, 2013

CLR GC - Part 2

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Maoni Stephens and Larry Larsen continue walking you through the CLR Garbage Collector. Maoni is the Principal developer for the GC on the CLR team.

Apr 2, 2013

CLR GC - Part 3

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Maoni Stephens and Larry Larsen continue walking you through the CLR Garbage Collector. Maoni is the Principal developer for the GC on the CLR team.

Apr 8, 2013

CLR GC - Part 4

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Maoni Stephens and Larry Larsen continue walking you through the CLR Garbage Collector - specifically PerfView. Maoni is the Principal developer for the GC on the CLR team.

Apr 15, 2013

JavaScript - Part 1

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Amanda Silver and Larry Larsen start walking you through the debugging of JavaScript Windows Store applications with Visual Studio. Amanda is a Principal developer for the JavaScript engine used in Internet Explorer, Windows Store applications and Visual Studio.

Apr 22, 2013

JavaScript - Part 2

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Amanda Silver and Larry Larsen continue walking you through the debugging of JavaScript Windows Store applications with Visual Studio. Amanda is a Principal developer for the JavaScript engine used in Internet Explorer, Windows Store applications and Visual Studio.

Apr 29, 2013

Windows Performance Toolkit

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen starting walking you through the Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT).

May 6, 2013

WPT - WPR & WPA

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue walking you through the Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT).

May 13, 2013

WPT - Command Line

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue walking you through the Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT). Example xPerf scripts.

May 20, 2013

WPT - CPU Analysis

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue walking you through the Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT). Example xPerf scripts.

May 27, 2013

WPT - Wait Analysis

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue walking you through the Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT). Example xPerf scripts.

Jun 3, 2013

WPT - DiskIO Analysis

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue walking you through the Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT). Example xPerf scripts.

Jun 17, 2013

WPT - File & Registry Analysis

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue walking you through the Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT). Example xPerf scripts.

Jun 24, 2013

WPT - Driver Analysis

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue walking you through the Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT). Example xPerf scripts.

Jul 8, 2013

WPT - MiniFilter Analysis

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue walking you through the Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT). Example xPerf scripts.

Jul 15, 2013

WPT - Memory Analysis - Pool

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue walking you through the Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT). This is part 1 of 3 episodes on memory usage/leaks. Example xPerf scripts.

Jul 22, 2013

WPT - Memory Analysis - VirtualAlloc

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue walking you through the Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT). This is part 2 of 3 episodes on memory usage/leaks. Example xPerf scripts.

Jul 29, 2013

WPT - Memory Analysis - Heap

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue walking you through the Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT). This is part 3 of 3 episodes on memory usage/leaks. Example xPerf scripts.

Aug 5, 2013

Support Diagnostics

In this two part series of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Larry Larsen talk to Jeff Dailey, Director of diagnostics in Microsoft Support. In this episode, we cover the principals of data collection and analysis.

Aug 12, 2013

Microsoft Fix it Center Pro

In this two part series of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Larry Larsen talk to Jeff Dailey, Director of diagnostics in Microsoft Support. In this episode, we talk about Microsoft Fix it Center Pro.

Aug 19, 2013

Crashes, Hangs and Slow Performance

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen talk about Crashes, Hangs and Slow Performance. We talk about how to approach these issues and list the tools that can help you analyze them.

Aug 26, 2013

IE Favorites Crash

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen show you the analysis of a crash. The crash happens when Favorites is clicked in Internet Explorer. We show Andrew's debugging and troubleshooting steps to solve the issue.

Sep 2, 2013

Bugcheck 0xAB Crash

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Chad Beeder, Andrew Richards and Larry Larsen show you the analysis of a Bugcheck 0xAB (by C9'er David Grainger). We show Chad's debugging and troubleshooting steps to solve the issue.

Sep 9, 2013

Explorer Hang

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen show you the analysis of a hang. The hang happens in Explorer when Windows-E is pressed - the folder window never appears. We show Andrew's debugging steps to solve the issue.

Sep 16, 2013

New Job, New Systems, 2 Questions and 2 Crashes

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen talk about Andrew's new job, configuring new systems with SSDs and HDDs, answer two questions from a viewer (Barry), and debug two crashes. [So why is the audio weird in this episode? Well, Andrew accidently hit mute on his mic just before recording. Kaitlin came to the rescue and used the audio from Chad's mic, fixing the levels for hours - Thx Kaitlin]

Sep 23, 2013

Sysinternals Streams and Autoruns Example

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen talk about a Sysinternals Autoruns file from a viewer (Judy) for a slow booting system. We update Sysinternals and in doing so, we use Sysinternals Steams to show the (NTFS) alternate data stream used to save the Zone information of the download.

Sep 30, 2013

Larry Osterman

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Larry Osterman joins Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder to talk about lots of random stuff from his 29ys at Microsoft; including the old days, Windows Audio, Windows 8.1 UI, and much more.

Oct 7, 2013

Visual Studio 2013 - JavaScript - Just My Code

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Rob Paveza joins Andrew Richards and Larry Larsen to talk about Just My Code for JavaScript Windows Store Apps in Visual Studio 2013. We show how much easier debugging is with all of the JavaScript libraries (e.g. JQuery) filtered out.

Oct 14, 2013

Windows 8.1 - Disk Space, Sysinternals DU and RU

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen talk about Sysinternals Disk Usage and Sysinternals Registry Usage. These tools are used to determine the size of Folder and Registry trees. We provide advice on how to free up disk space so you can upgrade to Windows 8.1 on a low-disk space system.

Oct 21, 2013

Windows 8.1 - High DPI

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Chad Beeder, Andrew Richards and Larry Larsen talk about the High DPI support in Windows 8.1.

Oct 28, 2013

Windows 8.1 - SDK

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen walk you through the download of the Windows 8.1 SDK and the latest Sysinternals tools. We harvest the Debugging Tools for Windows, Windows Performance Toolkit, and Application Verifier files from the SDK. We also show some of the new WinDbg features.

Nov 4, 2013

Windows 8.1 - Store App Crash (c000027b)

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen walk you through a Windows Store Application crash dump. We show the Quality page of the Dev Dashboard and debug a dump with WinDbg.

Nov 10, 2013

Windows 8.1 - Jeffrey Richter - Windows Runtime via C#

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Jeffrey Richter joins Andrew Richards and Larry Larsen to talk about Windows Store Application development. We talk about all the books he's authored and what his company (Wintellect) is doing recently.

Nov 18, 2013

Windows 8.1 - Jeffrey Richter - Wintellect Package Explorer

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Jeffrey Richter joins Andrew Richards and Larry Larsen to talk about the Wintellect Package Explorer. This new tool, associated with the Windows Runtime for C# book, allows you to view the properties of Store apps installed on your system, and help you manage them.

Nov 26, 2013

Windows 8.1 - Background Task Hang

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder walk you through a common issues in Background Task applications. We use a Windows Store 8.1 app sample to show how missing code affects the process, and how the process can be reported as having an Application Hang due to non-responsiveness.

Dec 2, 2013

Windows 8.1 - HTTP Request Crash

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder walk you through a common issues in Windows Store applications that use HTTP. We use a Windows Store 8.1 app sample to show how a missing exception handler affects the stability of the process.

Dec 9, 2013

Windows 8.1 - XML Load Crash

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder walk you through a common issues in Windows Store applications that use XML. We use a Windows Store 8.1 app sample to show how missing code affects the stability of the process.

Dec 16, 2013

Windows 8.1 - Interop Crash

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder walk you through a common issues in Windows Store applications that use Interop. We use a Windows Store 8.1 app sample to show how missing code affects the stability of the process.

Dec 23, 2013

Message Analyzer - Part 1

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Paul Long joins Chad Beeder in this 3 part series on Message Analyzer.

Dec 30, 2013

Message Analyzer - Part 2

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Paul Long joins Chad Beeder in this 3 part series on Message Analyzer.

Jan 6, 2014

Message Analyzer - Part 3

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Paul Long joins Chad Beeder in this 3 part series on Message Analyzer.

Jan 13, 2014

Frame.GetNavigationState Crash

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder walk you through a common issue in Windows Store applications that use Frame.GetNavigationState. We use a Windows Store 8.1 app sample to show how using complex objects as a parameter in navigation can cause serialization to raise an exception.

Jan 20, 2014

Windows 8.1 - FileNotFound Crash

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen walk you through a common issue in Windows Store applications that use Files. We use a Windows Store 8.1 app sample to show how missing code affects the stability of the process.

Jan 27, 2014

Escalation Engineer

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Trey Nash and Jason Epperly join Chad Beeder to talk about their roles as Escalation Engineers in CSS.

Feb 3, 2014

WPT Example - CPU

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Trey Nash joins Chad Beeder to demonstrate how the Windows Performance Toolkit was used to solve a performance issue in a time sensitive application.

Feb 10, 2014

WPT Example - Disk

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Jason Epperly joins Chad Beeder to demonstrate how the Windows Performance Toolkit was used to solve a performance issue while logging in to a system.

Feb 17, 2014

Microsoft Consulting Services

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Chad Beeder is joined by Steve Thomas to talk about Steve's role as a consultant for Microsoft Consulting Services.

Feb 24, 2014

App-V

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Chad Beeder is joined by Steve Thomas to talk about Application Virtualization (App-V) troubleshooting techniques.

Mar 3, 2014

Aaron Margosis

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder are joined by Aaron Margosis to talk about the Sysinternals book he co-authored, and demos an Application Installation Recorder that leverages Process Monitor and PowerShell.

Mar 10, 2014

Performance Counters - Part 1

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen begin a multi-part series on how Performance Counters work and how to add them to an application. This episode focuses on the (statistical) counter types that determine how the (raw) data is reported.

Mar 17, 2014

Performance Counters - Part 2

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder continue a 3-part series on how Performance Counters work and how to add them to an application. This episode focuses on the XML manifest that you develop, that turns in to code when compiled with CTRPP.

Mar 24, 2014

Performance Counters - Part 3

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder continue a 3-part series on how Performance Counters work and how to add them to an application. This episode focuses on turning the XML manifest in to code (with CTRPP), and using the generated code in a sample application.

Mar 31, 2014

Sigcheck (plus: the Heartbleed bug)

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen discuss two topics: The Heartbleed bug, and the Sigcheck tool from Sysinternals.

Apr 14, 2014

Windows 8.1 Update

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards walks you through the download of the Windows 8.1 Update SDK, the Windows 8.1 Store App Samples, the latest Sysinternals tools, and the Wintellect Package Explorer. We harvest the Debugging Tools for Windows, Windows Performance Toolkit, and Application Verifier files from the SDK.

Apr 21, 2014

Symbol Folder Hierarchy - index2.txt

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder talk about how you can change the Symbol folder's hierarchy to be 2-Tier instead of 1-Tier - by adding an index2.txt file to the root.

Apr 28, 2014

Symbol Folder Tools

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder talk about 4 tools used to maintain your Symbol Store and Symbol Cache folders.

May 5, 2014

Sysinternals Strings, FindStr, !pde.ssz

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Chad Beeder and Andrew Richards use FindStr, Sysinternals Strings and !pde.ssz to perform string searches and filtering.

Jun 16, 2014

Scheduled Tasks

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Chad Beeder and Andrew Richards use the Scheduled Tasks MMC, Sysinternals Autoruns, at.exe, scdtasks.exe and PowerShell to manage the Task Scheduler.

Jun 23, 2014

Writing a Debugger Extension Part 1

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder start a new series on writing a Debugger Extension for the Debugging Tools for Windows. The series is based on a 3 part MSDN Magazine series that Andrew wrote back in early 2011.

Jun 30, 2014

Writing a Debugger Extension Part 2

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder continue a series on writing a Debugger Extension for the Debugging Tools for Windows. The series is based on a 3 part MSDN Magazine series that Andrew wrote back in early 2011.

Jul 7, 2014

Writing a Debugger Extension Part 3

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder continue a series on writing a Debugger Extension for the Debugging Tools for Windows. The series is based on a 3 part MSDN Magazine series that Andrew wrote back in early 2011.

Jul 14, 2014

Writing a Debugger Extension Part 4

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder continue a series on writing a Debugger Extension for the Debugging Tools for Windows. The series is based on a 3 part MSDN Magazine series that Andrew wrote back in early 2011.

Jul 22, 2014

Episode 100!!! - Campus Tour

This week we break out of the Channel 9 studios and visit the offices of Chad Beeder and Andrew Richards, and talk about some of the history of Buildings 22 and 26.

Writing a Debugger Extension Part 5

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder continue a series on writing a Debugger Extension for the Debugging Tools for Windows. The series is based on a 3 part MSDN Magazine series that Andrew wrote back in early 2011.

Aug 4, 2014

Writing a Debugger Extension Part 6

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder continue a series on writing a Debugger Extension for the Debugging Tools for Windows. The series is based on a 3 part MSDN Magazine series that Andrew wrote back in early 2011.

Aug 11, 2014

Writing a Debugger Extension Part 7

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder continue a series on writing a Debugger Extension for the Debugging Tools for Windows. The series is based on a 3 part MSDN Magazine series that Andrew wrote back in early 2011.

Aug 19, 2014

Writing a Debugger Extension Part 8

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder continue a series on writing a Debugger Extension for the Debugging Tools for Windows. The series is based on a 3 part MSDN Magazine series that Andrew wrote back in early 2011.

Sep 2, 2014

Writing a Debugger Extension Part 9

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder finish a series on writing a Debugger Extension for the Debugging Tools for Windows. The series is based on a 3 part MSDN Magazine series that Andrew wrote back in early 2011.

Sep 8, 2014

Larry Osterman - 30 Years - Part 1

In a two part special for Defrag Tools, Larry Osterman joins Larry Larsen, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder to celebrate Larry's 30 years at Microsoft. We travel to the Microsoft Archives building to reminisce over a selection of products that Microsoft has produced over Larry's 30 year career.

Sep 15, 2014

Larry Osterman - 30 Years - Part 2

In this second part of a two part special for Defrag Tools, Larry Osterman joins Larry Larsen, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder to celebrate Larry's 30 years at Microsoft. We continue looking around the Microsoft Archives building, reminiscing over a selection of products that Microsoft has produced over Larry's 30 year career.

Sep 22, 2014

Sysinternals SysMon - Mark Russinovich

Mark Russinovich and Thomas Garnier join Andrew Richards in this episode of Defrag Tools. We talk about their new tool - Sysinternals System Monitor. System Monitor (Sysmon) is a Windows system service and device driver that, once installed on a system, remains resident across system reboots to monitor and log system activity to the Windows event log. It provides detailed information about process creations, network connections, and changes to file creation time.

Sep 29, 2014

Writing a CLR Debugger Extension Part 1

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards starts a two part series on writing a Debugger Extension in C# for the Debugging Tools for Windows. The series follows on from the recent 9 part series on writing a Debugger Extension in C++. The C# code utilizes the Microsoft.Diagnostics.Runtime (CLRMD) and DllExports packages, available on NuGet.

Oct 6, 2014

Writing a CLR Debugger Extension Part 2

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards finishes a two part series on writing a Debugger Extension in C# for the Debugging Tools for Windows. The series follows on from the recent 9 part series on writing a Debugger Extension in C++. The C# code utilizes the Microsoft.Diagnostics.Runtime (CLRMD) and DllExports packages, available on NuGet.

Oct 13, 2014

Programming Windows Store Apps with HTML, CSS and JavaScript Part 1

In this of Defrag Tools, Kraig Brockschmidt joins Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder for two episodes to talk about Windows Store Application development using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Be sure to download the free ebook!

Oct 20, 2014

Programming Windows Store Apps with HTML, CSS and JavaScript Part 2

In this of Defrag Tools, Kraig Brockschmidt joins Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder for a second episode to talk about Windows Store Application development using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Be sure to download the free ebook!

Oct 27, 2014

PerfView Part 1

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Vance Morrison joins Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder to discuss his performance analysis tool, PerfView. In part 1 of this series, we demonstrate downloading and installing the tool, and collecting traces.

Nov 3, 2014

PerfView Part 2

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Vance Morrison joins Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder to discuss his performance analysis tool, PerfView. In part 2 of this series, we review a trace for CPU issues.

Nov 10, 2014

PerfView Part 3

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Vance Morrison joins Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder to discuss his performance analysis tool, PerfView. In part 3 of this series, we focus on looking at memory issues.

Nov 17, 2014

PerfView Part 4

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Vance Morrison joins Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder to discuss his performance analysis tool, PerfView. In part 4 of this series, we focus on using PerfView as a diagnostics tool.

Nov 24, 2014

PerfView Part 5

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Vance Morrison joins Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder to discuss his performance analysis tool, PerfView. In part 5 of this series, we focus on using PerfView as a diagnostics tool.

Dec 1, 2014

PerfView Part 6

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Vance Morrison joins Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder to discuss his performance analysis tool, PerfView. In part 6 of this series, we show how easy it is to add ETW events to your applications, and how these events can be seen in PerfView.

Dec 8, 2014

Windows Management Instrumentation

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder to discuss Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).

Dec 15, 2014

PerfView Part 7

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Vance Morrison joins Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder to discuss his performance analysis tool, PerfView. In part 7 of this series, we show how easy it is to analyze ETW events with PerfView.

Dec 22, 2014

DebugDiag Part 1

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Wade Mascia joins Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder to discuss his debugging analysis tool, DebugDiag. In part 1 of this 4 part series, we show the basic features of DebugDiag.

Dec 29, 2014

DebugDiag Part 2

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Wade Mascia joins Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder to discuss his debugging analysis tool, DebugDiag. In part 2 of this 4 part series, we continue delving in to the features of DebugDiag.

Jan 5, 2015

DebugDiag Part 3

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Wade Mascia joins Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder to discuss the debugging analysis tool, DebugDiag. In part 3 of this 4 part series, we continue delving in to the features of DebugDiag.

Jan 12, 2014

DebugDiag Part 4

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Wade Mascia joins Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder to discuss the debugging analysis tool, DebugDiag. In part 4 of this 4 part series, we continue delving in to the features of DebugDiag.

Jan 19, 2015

PerfView - Part 8

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Vance Morrison joins Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder to discuss his performance analysis tool, PerfView. In part 8 of this series, we show how to analyze the GC with PerfView.

Jan 26, 2015

Internet Explorer F12 Developer Tools - Part 1

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andy Sterland joins Chad Beeder to discuss the IE F12 Developer Tools, including some of the new features available in the Windows 10 Tech Preview.

Feb 23, 2015

Internet Explorer F12 Developer Tools - Part 2

In this episode of Defrag Tools, David Stephens joins Andrew Richards to discuss the IE F12 Console, including some of the new features available in the Windows 10 Tech Preview.

Mar 2, 2015

Networking - Part 1

In the next two episodes of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder discuss Networking. We look at various inbox tools, including ipconfig, route, netstat, arp, nslookup, tracert, ping, psping, net and netsh.

Mar 16, 2015

Networking - Part 2

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder continue to discuss Networking. We look at more inbox tools (netsh, tracert, ping, psping, net) and talk about Receive-Side Scaling (RSS), TCP Chimney Offload and the TCP Receive Window.

Mar 23, 2015

Services

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards and Chad Beeder discuss services in Windows. We look at several tools for managing services, and discuss how they are implemented.

Mar 30, 2015