How to view .dmp file on Windows 7?

Question

I have created a "minidump" file using the Visual Studio 2008 C++ debugger (Debug menu -> Save dump as...). I am running on Windows 7, 64-bit.

What program can I run to view the contents of the dump file in a meaningful way?

Answer 1

What information are you trying to get out of it?

WinDbg is my tool of choice.

It's part of the Windows SDK. You can get download links from here: http://www.windbg.org/

Note that there are three plaforms for it - x86, x64, and IA64. You want the version based on what the application is designed for, not your architecture. So if it is a 32-bit process, either by running on x86 Windows or WOW64 on x64 Windows, you want the x86 version. Only use x64 if the dmp came from a 64-bit process.