How to install and use Windows symbol File

1. Install the latest version of debugging tools for Windows, as follows: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx
This step is very important because Microsoft has updated windbg very frequently recently. Even if you do not need windbg, we also need two files in the windbg installation package (dbghelp. DLL and symsrv. DLL) to update the files attached to other debugging tools (such as IDA and SoftICE). Otherwise, it is very easy to download the latest symbol file from Microsoft symbol server correctly.

2. Add the Environment Variable _ nt_symbol_path and set the value as follows:
Symsrv * symsrv. dll * C:/symserver * http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
It indicates that if the required symbol file cannot be found, it will be downloaded from Microsoft's symbol server and saved to C: /symserver directory (this directory is used to be consistent with a symbol retriever tool included in DriverStudio.

3. use debugging tools for Windows to install dbghelp. DLL and symsrv. the DLL file overwrites the two files that are included in the third-party debugging tool-if any, such as IDA, SoftICE, boundschecker, and so on. Make sure that the two DLL files in these debugging tools are the latest version.

Now you can test it. Open symbol retriever, add a DLL at will, and click get symbols. If everything is normal, a protocol dialog box will pop up later, after confirmation, we can see that the status of this file is changed to done. We can go to C:/symserver/NTDLL. locate NTDLL in the PDB directory. PDB. This is the symbol file we want.