VB.Net application Start Debugging works, manually launching debug EXE doesn't

Question

I am developing a Visual Studio VB.NET application which uses a 3rd party activeX control and also a COM interface to another application. When I click the start debugging button in Visual Studio, I can run my app just fine. When I go to my projects' bin/debug folder and try to launch the exe in there, the 3rd party app launches (one of the first lines of code in my main form_load event is to launch this app), but my VB form never opens/displays and doesn't run.

I was under the impression that this exe was the one loading when I click "start debugging" in visual studio, but I'm lost as to why it won't load when clicking on the exe manually. I have looked all around the web and haven't found a solution. I am using VS 2010 and .NET framework 4. I don't know where to begin looking for the problem and any suggestions are very appreciated!

Note: The ActiveX control is on a 30 day trial period which has 10 days left. I get a popup notification every time I run my app in VS which reminds me of this. It is possible that this could be part of the problem, but I would think it should run the same way double clicking the .exe.

Danilo Ramirez Danilo Ramirez · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-05T22:26:41

I'm not 100% sure, but maybe your 3rd party app (and hence your application) need another library that you did not include when building the application, but VS is able to use it.

Anyways, you could:

Build on release mode (I don't see any other need of using debug if you are just testing the exe)

or

Start your non-working debug exe and use the "Attach to process" feature of VS to see why it isn't popping up. Yo will probably need to modify it to stop at some point and wait for a key to continue, in order to being able to debug from the start on VS.

I hope it works for you!

VB.Net application Start Debugging works, manually launching debug EXE doesn't

2 Answers