Visual Studio Logging
Versions: 2008,2010
Published: 11/11/2010
Code: vstipEnv0048
There's no doubt Visual Studio is an awesome piece of software but there will be times when you need to find out why there is a problem loading it. Did you know that it comes with a logging switch? While the documentation (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms241272.aspx) is lacking, the comment by Paul Harrington on the VS team helps a great deal.
Essentially, the syntax is as follows:
devenv.exe /log [filename]
The [filename] is optional and if not specified will call the log ActivityLog.xml by default. The path is to the file is:
%APPDATA%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\<version>\ActivityLog.xml
Give it a try. Go to the Visual Studio Command Prompt and enter the command:
You can then navigate to the file location:
When you open the log file in Notepad this is an example of what you will see:
Fortunately, there is an XML stylesheet (XSL) comes with the XML data so if you view it in your browser you will see a much cleaner view: