What is the purpose of the vshost.exe file?

user_93974 0
Viewed 196632

When I create and compile a "Hello, World!" application in C#, I get three files in the Debug folder apart from the main exe (e.g. HelloWorld.exe)

  1. HelloWorld.vshost.exe
  2. HelloWorld.pdb
  3. HelloWorld.vshost.exe.manifest

What purpose do these files serve?

visual-studio debugging c#
6 Answers

The vshost.exe feature was introduced with Visual Studio 2005 (to answer your comment).

The purpose of it is mostly to make debugging launch quicker - basically there's already a process with the framework running, just ready to load your application as soon as you want it to.

See this MSDN article and this blog post for more information.

user_226560

  • .exe - the 'normal' executable

  • .vshost.exe - a special version of the executable to aid debuging; see MSDN for details

  • .pdb - the Program Data Base with debug symbols

  • .vshost.exe.manifest - a kind of configuration file containing mostly dependencies on libraries

user_775070

The vshost.exe file is the executable run by Visual Studio (Visual Studio host executable). This is the executable that links to Visual Studio and improves debugging.

When you're distributing your application to others, you do not use the vshost.exe or .pdb (debug database) files.

user_933060

I'm not sure, but I believe it is a debugging optimization. However, I usually turn it off (see Debug properties for the project) and I don't notice any slowdown and I see no limitations when it comes to debugging.

user_382060
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