Visual Studio & Natvis not working

Question

I'm using VS Ultimate 2012 Update 5 :

• Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate 2012
• Version 11.0.61219.00 Update 5
• Microsoft .NET Framework
• Version 4.5.50938

... and try to use/install natvis to get user defined debugger variable vizualisations.

I did every hints provided in MSDN or StackOverflow (like creating EnableNatvisDiagnostics in registry, or advice in https://msdn.microsoft.com/fr-fr/library/jj620914%28v=vs.110%29.aspx )

Nothing works.

Any idea ? Regards. Alain aka BDW

Answer 1

For me I had to turn off Use Native Compatibility Mode in the Debugger Options. None of these other suggestions worked up until that point. So my advice is experiment with these debugger options until the natvis works as there's no one-size-fits-all solution here.

Answer 2

I was experiencing similar problems in VS2015. Suddenly all of my visualisers stopped working.

With reference to this post: User defined natvis files in Visual Studio 2012 - in my case, "Show raw structure of data objects in variables window" was turned off. Checking it seemed to get VS to start loading the Natvis files again.

I also turned off "Use Managed Compatibility Mode" and "Use Native Compatibility Mode" for good measure, as I'd checked these options around the time that visualisers stopped working for me.

Answer 3

You can enable natvis debugging directly in Visual Studio in:
Tools -> Options -> Debugging -> Ouput Window -> Natvis diagnostic messages (C++ only)
It works in Visual Studio 2015 - 2019 (at least).

(Since Visual C++ 2015 EnableNatvisDiagnostics registry setting is not used .)