WinDBG does not halt execution on ASSERT()

[virtuald]

I’ve been really happy with VirtualKD so far, it’s quite excellent!

However, when using VirtualKD with a Windows 7 target, ASSERT(0) does not halt execution in WinDBG. A message is displayed in WinDBG saying that an assert happened, but execution does not stop. Running the ‘sx’ command shows that the debugger expects to break on an assert.

Host machine: Windows 7 x64, Virtualbox 4.1.12, VirtualKD 2.6
The assert is ignored on Windows 7 RTM in 32 and 64 bit targets. Windows XP SP3 targets halt execution as expected.

[support]

That’s the default behavior in Windows Vista and Win7.
You can use VisualDDK to override it.

[virtuald]

After restoring to a snapshot of a VirtualBox Win7-x86 machine without VirtualKD, connecting with a serial kernel debugger to com1 on the target — assert works as expected, and it asks whether to Break/Ignore/etc. This is without Service Pack 1, so perhaps it is only the default behavior on SP1?

[Author]

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