visual studio 2010 remote debugging: start external program: directory does not exist

Question

Everything works if I do "Attach To Process".

But I need to debug a problem during launch of an application, so I need to be able to either "Start project" or "Start external program" the remote exe.

When I do, I get "directory does not exist". (Presumably, It is either looking for this non-existent directory LOCALLY, or it lacks permissions.)

Details: * .Net Framework 3.5; C# Windows Form, with button that when clicked does

Debug.WriteLine("Hello World!");

• Two Windows 7 Ultimate PCs, with same username and password, administrator.

Local PC:

• Visual Studio 2010 Professional. Hello World project open and built. Tested locally: Start Debugging / hit button / see "Hello World!" in VS Output pane. Quit local version of app.

Remote PC:

• Visual "Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable" installed (so can run a debug version of this .Net application; before installing said "The program can't start because MSVCR100.dll is missing, when hit a breakpoint.").

• Visual Studio Remote Debugging Monitor running.

  • says "(date/time) Msvsmon started a new server named Steve@FRESHINSTALL: Waiting for new connections".
  • When Attach to Process, says "FreshInstall\Steve connected".

• Copy from local pc's project location (in default VS 2010 projects), \bin\debug* to C:\Code\HelloWorld*

• Code folder is Shared with full privileges (just in case ...)

Attach to Process works fine:

• click button => "Hello World" -- in Local PC's Output pane, just like when running locally.

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Now, the problem. How LAUNCH the .exe remotely, instead of Attach to Process?

On Debug pane:

• Tried "Start project"

• alternatively, tried "Start external program:" C:\Code\HelloWorld\HelloWorld.exe" -- on Remote PC, this is the path to .exe

• Working directory: "C:\Code\HelloWorld" <-- this directory ONLY exists on Remote PC (deliberately -- to make sure we aren't executing locally)

• [checkmark] Use remote machine: FRESHINSTALL.

• Tried with and without "Enable the Visual Studio hosting process".

When do "Start Debugging", all variations say "The working directory does not exist: "C:\Code\HelloWorld".

Well, of course not: it is on Remote PC, not locally.

Yet everywhere I look, this is what instructions say to do.

What am I supposed to do differently, or what could be wrong?

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(Obviously this simple app, I could stick with Attach To Process. But I have a MUCH more complicated multiple-dll application, which is having a problem during startup. I need to breakpoint the "real" application during its start up, not after it is already running.)

(And the real situation I have to debug, is on the other side of the world, with a slow internet link. This is a local simulation of what is going wrong there. Not practical to install visual studio on the actual remote PC, to turn it into a local debugging situation. Spent a day trying to remote debug that; after I get it working on a local network, I have to duplicate the whole process with much less control over what is going on.)

Answer 1

In the interests of closing this question, to indicate that it has been addressed:

See wal's first comment on my question, and follow the link he gave, which I repeat here:

Visual Studio remote upload and debugging on other computer