Start Profiling Session from Visual Studio

dotTrace integrated in Visual Studio lets you profile the currently opened solution, more specifically, a particular run configuration.

Run configurations let you create a number of predefined configurations with different run parameters for your startup project, an arbitrary executable, or even any static method. For example, you can create a number of configurations that will differ by CPU architecture and CLR version. These configurations can be used to quickly run or debug your project without the need to set up particular run parameters each time. As dotTrace shares the ReSharper platform, it is able to profile any run configuration.

By default, your solution has only one run configuration - the configuration for the startup project.

Start profiling of a startup project

Do one of the following:
- If you did not yet create any run configurations, in the Visual Studio menu, select ReSharper | Profile | Run Startup Configuration Performance Profiling.
- If you have more than one (default) run configurations, the Visual Studio menu, select ReSharper | Tools | Run Configurations and choose the [project_name] (VS Startup) configuration. Then select ReSharper | Profile | Run Startup Configuration Performance Profiling.
This will open the Profile Startup Project window.
In the Profile Startup Project window, configure profiling settings as described in Configure Profiling Session.
Click Start.

Start profiling of a specific run configuration

Create a run configuration for your project, executable, or particular static method. To do this, in the Visual Studio menu, select ReSharper | Tools | Run Configurations... | Add, select the corresponding item. This will open the window with run configuration options. For more information about them, refer to the ReSharper documentation.
Select the created run configuration using the Visual Studio menu ReSharper | Tools | Run Configurations... | [run_config_name] | Configure | Select.
In the Visual Studio menu, select ReSharper | Profile | Run Startup Configuration Performance Profiling. This will open the Profile Startup Project window.
In the Profile Startup Project window, configure profiling settings as described in Configure Profiling Session.
Click Start.

Quickly start profiling of a specific run configuration

You can also use the Performance Profiler window to quickly start profiling of a particular run configuration.

Create a run configuration for your project, executable, or particular static method. To do this, in the Visual Studio menu, select ReSharper | Tools | Run Configurations... | Add, select the corresponding item. This will open the window with run configuration options.
For more information about them, refer to the ReSharper documentation.
Open the Performance Profiler window using the Visual Studio menu ReSharper | Profile | Open Performance Profiler.
In the Performance Profiler window, in the list, select profiling type.
In the Performance Profiler window, in the run configurations list, select the created configuration.
Click .

Quickly start profiling of a static method

Profiling of run configurations for static methods can be started using the action list of the particular static method.

Place the caret at the method and press
In the list, select Debug method | Profile ([profiling_type]) method.
Note that this session will use the profiling type that is currently selected in the Performance Profiler window.
In the Profile Startup Project window, configure profiling settings as described in Configure Profiling Session.
Click Start.

Start profiling of another application

You can also start profiling of an arbitrary application rather than a particular run configuration.

In the Visual Studio menu, select ReSharper | Profile | Run Application Performance Profiling.... This will open the Profile Application window.
Start a profiling session.

Last modified: 05 September 2023