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Thread Validator Help

Navigation: The User Interface > Starting your target program

Injecting into a running program

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Injecting into a running program

 

Thread Validator attaches to a running process by injecting the stub into the process so it can start collecting data.

 

Choose one of these methods of starting the injection:

 

menu File menu instructionStep Inject... instructionStep shows the Attach to Running Process wizard or dialog below

 

Or click on the Inject icon on the session toolbar.

 

toolbar-inject

 

Or use the shortcut

 

b_f3  Inject into running application

 

 

Administrator privileges

 

The following applies only if you did not start Thread Validator in administrator mode.

 

When choosing the inject method described in this topic, a restart of Thread Validator with administrator privileges will be required to proceed.

 

inject-admin-privileges-in-dialog-mode

 

 

Injecting into a service?

 

If your process is a service, Thread Validator won't be able to attach to it.

 

Services can't have process handles opened by third party applications, even with Administrator privileges.

 

In order to work with services, you can use the NT service API and monitor the service

 

You may see this warning dialog when trying to inject into a service:

 

injection-warning

 

 

User interface mode

 

There are two interface modes used while starting a program

 

Wizard mode guides you through the tasks in a linear fashion
 

Dialog mode has all options contained in a single dialog
 

All the options are the same - just in slightly different places

 

In this section we'll cover the Wizard mode first and the Dialog mode later.

 

 

The attach to running process wizard

 

The first page of the wizard shows a list of running system and user processes.

 

start-attach-wizard-processes

 

 

The list shows the following information:

 

ID instructionStep The process ID
 

Admin instructionStep may show a admin-priv-iconsymbol to indicate a requirement for administrator privileges in order to run the program.

 
This requirement is automatically detected from the manifestexternalLink for the process.
 

Process instructionStep The process executable name
 

Choose a process before continuing:

 

Next >> instructionStep move to the next page of the wizard
 

The button will show the admin-priv-iconsymbol if you have selected a process which requires elevated privileges to run.

 

 

Page 1: Choosing the process

 

System processes / Services / User processes instructionStep show any or all of services and system or user processes in the list

 

Full path instructionStep shows the full path to the process executable in the list
 

Image Name instructionStep shows the short program name without path

 

Refresh instructionStep update the list with currently running processes

 

Clicking on the headers of the list will sort them by ID or by name using the full name or short name, depending on what's displayed.

 

 

Page 2: Data collection

 

The second page controls when to start collecting information.

 

start-attach-wizard-collect

 

Depending on your application, and what you want to test, you may want to start collecting data as soon as injection happens, or do it later.

 

If your program has a complex start-up procedure, initialising lots of data, it may be much faster not to collect data until the program has launched.

 

Collect data from application instructionStep if it's the startup Thread you want to monitor, then obviously start collecting data from launch
 

start-application-wizard-collect

 

seeAlsoSee the section on controlling data collection for how to turn collection on and off after launch.

 

 

Summary and starting your program

 

The second page also confirms at the top which process you have selected to inject into, and prompts you to attach:

 

Attach... instructionStep injects Thread Validator into the specified process, showing progress status
 
The button will show the admin-priv-iconsymbol if you have selected a process which requires elevated privileges to run.

 

seeAlsoIn the general questions see Why might Inject or Launch fail? for troubleshooting launch problems.

 

 

Dialog mode

 

In Dialog mode, all the settings are in one dialog but which still looks similar to the first page of the wizard above.

 

The option of when to start collecting data, and whether to collect function and line times is at the top, as is the Attach... button itself.

 

start-attach-dialog-processes