Debugging URL-launched applications

How to debug No-Touch Deployment applications?

No-Touch Deployment applications run in the IEExec.exe process, which is the reason why you cannot see the applications in Task Manager.

To debug your application you have to run the IEExec.exe instead of your application

In Visual Studio, change the Debug Mode in the project properties (under Configuration Properties|Debugging) to program and enter the IEExec.exe as Start Application. The IEExec.exe is located in your .NET Framework directory. On Windows 2000, XP this is %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322. IEExec.exe requires the full qualified URL to your application as command line argument. For Example: IEExec.exe http://MyServer/MyApp/MyApp.Exe.

For those of you still having trouble debugging make sure to read Mark Levison's tips.

Note for .NET Framework 1.0 SP2 users only:
The IEExec.exe provided by .NET Framework 1.0 SP2 requires a second argument representing the flags and allows an optional third and fourth parameter.

Usage:       ieexec.exe url flags [securityZone] [domainId]
url          Assembly to launch, e.g. http://localhost/foo.exe
flags        Flags to control execution. Values that can be added together are:
             0: no flags
             1: create evidence for the zone
             2: create evidence for the site
securityZone If evidenceFlags != 0, sets the security zone.
             Values can be {0, 1, 2, 3} for {MyComputer, Intranet, Trusted, Internet}
domainId     If evidenceFlags != 0, unused hex-encoded bytes. Use 00.

Still trouble debugging? Drop me a comment.