Microsoft Debugging Utility

The Microsoft Debugging Utility, USERDUMP.EXE, creates a memory dump for a process. Since the output is quite large (as much as 50 meg), use this tool only at the request of Support.

To display a list of running processes and process IDs, enter

USERDUMP -p

To dump processes associated with a single process ID or image binary file name, enter

USERDUMP [-k] <ProcessSpec> [<TargetDumpFile>]

To dump processes associated with multiple process IDs or image binary file names, enter

USERDUMP -m [-k] <ProcessSpec> [<ProcessSpec>...] [-d <TargetDumpPath>]

To dump Win32 GUI processes that appear to hang, enter

USERDUMP -g [-k] [-d <TargetDumpPath>]

where

-k
Optionally causes processes to be killed after being dumped.
<ProcessSpec>
Is a decimal or 0x-prefixed hex process ID, or the base name and extension (no path) of the image file used to create a process.
<TargetDumpFile>
Is a legal Win32 file specification. If not specified, dump files are generated in the current directory using a name based on the image file name.
-d <TargetDumpPath>
Is the directory in which the dump files are to be created. The default is the current directory.

If a Toolbox Process Is Hanging

To dump the main Toolbox process if that is the one that is hanging:

  1. Open a MS-DOS window.
  2. Enter USERDUMP -p to get a list of processes and process IDs. Look for the process, PR0TOOL.EXE.
  3. Enter USERDUMP nnnnn, where nnnnn is the process id for PR0TOOL.EXE.

The program will take about 10 or 20 seconds to produce the dump file. A dump file will be created in the current directory (unless you specified a target dump file name) with a name similar to PR0TOOL.DMP.