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What directories to parse recursively for offline symbols for Windows 10, options, download options

Hi,

I have looked and looked but did not find any info in any Microsoft documentation about how to reproduce their offline symbol msi content in case I have a Win10 PC which is offline.

I was able to use symchk.exe to generate a manifest (probably not with the proper directory or options) and I could download symbols on a PC which was connected to the internet, so in general this seems to work.

Exactly how can I reproduce the offline symbol msi installer (zip is OK) using symchk to generate a manifest file, and symchk again to download the necessary files on another PC?
Connected: which paths to set for the 64 / 32 bit cdb.exe?

I have Win 10 (and Win 7 64 bit and a server) PCs which are offline and will stay offline.
In case Win 10 is updated I can redo the process and download the delta, I hope so.

About generating the list:

I know I can use

symchk.exe /r <directory> /om Manifest.txt > manifest.log

to generate a manifest for my PC.

Q1: Which directories should I use? C:\Windows\system32 for 64 bit and C:\Windows\SYSWOW64 for 32 bit?
Would that result in the same content as what Microsoft used to offer?
Or should I use the whole C:\Windows?
Or?

Q2: any switches for symchk I should use?

Q3: how to check if the output of symchk.exe is OK? It is really cryptic. The log is more or less readable.


About downloading:

I used

symchk.exe /im manifestfile.txt /s srv*<mylocaldownloadpath>*https://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols > downloadlog 2>&1

and it got the files.
The resulting structure was <mylocaldownloadpath>\filename.ext\<crypticstring>\finelame.ext mostly .pdb and some .dll-s, .exe, .sys, etc. I did not look through all

Q4: what switches should I use for downloading? I am asking because it seems that in a Win764.zip I already have from someone, there are 0 .dll files, while my downloaded files have dll files (I assume those MIGHT be dll files which are not present on the PC which is online but I am not sure)

Misc questions about symbols:

Q5: What if the developers use .NET / vcredist, is that covered? (I have not checked that yet, maybe pdb files are there by default)

Connected: which paths to set for the 64 / 32 bit cdb.exe?
I know how to set up cdb.exe to automatically be used to create a dump (more or less).
Q6: should I define the 32 bit path only for the 32 bit cdb.exe and the 64 bit path for the 64 bit cdb.exe or can I just set all for all and let them sort it out?



Sorry if I ask too many or stupid or many stupid questions but I have been looking and looking and all I find is generic info about symchk.exe, which I already know. I tis really annoying.
Partial answers are welcome. :)

Thanks!






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