How to: Limit instrumentation to specific DLLs

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Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

By using the instrumentation profiling method, you can limit the collection of profiling data to one or more DLLs in an application. To profile one or more DLLs in an application, you create a performance session that includes the .dll files as targets. You can specify the DLLs that you want to profile as projects in a Visual Studio solution or as independent binary files.

To limit instrumentation to specific DLLs in a Visual Studio solution

  1. Open the solution that contains the DLL in Visual Studio.

  2. On the Analyze menu, select Launch Performance Wizard.

  3. Choose Instrumentation as the profiling method and then click Next.

  4. From the Which of the following available targets would you like to profile?, select the name of the .dll project and then click Next.

  5. Click Finish to exit the wizard and display the new performance session in the Performance Explorer window.

  6. Right-click Targets and then select Add Target Project.

  7. From the Add Target Project list, select the executable project that you want to use to exercise the DLL.

    Optional. You can add any DLL projects that you want to profile.

  8. To prevent data collection for an added project, right-click the name of the project, and then clear the Instrument check box.

To specify specific DLLs to profile as independent binaries

  1. Open Visual Studio.

  2. On the Analyze menu, select Launch Performance Wizard.

  3. From the Which of the following available targets would you like to profile, select the Profile a dynamic link library (.DLL) and then click Next.

  4. On the second page of the wizard, perform the following steps:

    • Type the path and file name of the .dll file that you want to profile in Dll path. You can also click the ellipsis button (...) to locate the file in the Dynamic link library to profile dialog box. Note that you must specify the copy of the .dll file that will be launched by the executable (.exe) file that you select next.

    • Type the path and file name of the executable (.exe) file that will exercise the .dll in Executable path. You can also click the ellipsis button (...) to locate the file in the Executable to launch dialog box.

    • Optional. Type any command line arguments that you want to pass to the executable file in Command line arguments. If necessary, specify the working directory for the application in Working directory.

    • Click Next.

  5. Choose Instrumentation as the profiling method and then click Next.

  6. Click Finish to exit the wizard and display the new performance session in the Performance Explorer window.

  7. Optional. To add more .dll files, right-click Targets and then select Add Target Binary. Select the files from the Add Target Binary dialog box.

    Note

    Do not specify the executable (.exe) file that exercises the DLLs.

See also

Control data collection How to: Limit instrumentation to specific functions