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VS2010: Using the keyboard to profile an application (Alt-F2 shortcut)

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In announcing the Visual Studio Beta 2 profiler features, Chris mentioned that we have a new option on the Debug menu called ‘Start Performance Analysis’ which has the Alt-F2 keyboard shortcut. This makes it easier than ever to start profiling your application. The new menu item has the following behavior:

  • You must have a Visual Studio Solution open in order to enable it.
  • If you have a solution open, but do not have a launchable current performance session, Start Performance Analysis launches the Performance Wizard.
  • If you have a solution open and have a launchable current performance session, Start Performance Analysis starts profiling.

Let’s use this new functionality to profile an application that I prepared earlier.

  1. Open the solution with ‘Alt-F, J, Enter’:
    1_open_project 
  2. Start Performance Analysis with ‘Alt-F2’, which brings up the wizard:
    2_alt-f2_wizard
  3.   Press ‘Enter’ to choose the default ‘CPU Sampling’ profiling method and move to the target selection page:
    3_enter_next 
  4. Press ‘Enter’ to select the only launchable project in the solution and move to final wizard page:
    4_enter_finish
  5. Press ‘Enter’ to finish the wizard and start profiling:
    5_profiling
  6. The report will open when profiling finishes:
     6_report

 

If you wish to profile again, selecting Alt-F2 will start profiling with the Performance Session that was created after step #4.