Visual Studio to read BSOD minidump?

Question

I have seen somewhere that Visual Studio can be used to analyze a minidump and have a few questions:

1. Do I understand correctly that VS can be used to analyze a BSOD minidump? If so, what components must be installed? (I installed what I thought to be the "debugging" components but I get an invalid format error when I open a minidump with Visual Studio - I know the dump file is not corrupted because WinDBG reads it fine).
2. I already use WinDBG for BSOD minidump analysis but sometimes the cause is not identifiable - does Visual Studio provide any more insights into a BSOD minidump than WinDBG?
3. Is there a good guide anywhere on using Visual Studio to analyze a minidump and what to look for to isolate BSOD cause?

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi @bennie gibson, 

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A! 

Which version of Visual Studio are you using? 

You can refer to the document to directly open a dump file in Visual Studio.

Please see the Requirements and limitations for more information. 

Sincerely,

Anna

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