Bradley Grainger at Logos blogged a great workaround today for configuring WinDbg and running an initial script when launching from StackHash.

The problem is that StackHash currently relies on your current debug environment when running WinDbg to analyze a dump file. Bradley's solution is a batch file that configures the symbol and image search paths and also runs a script to pull in SOS (for managed debugging) and immediately run an analyze -v. The batch file replaces the debugger path in StackHash and so it's a transparent fix once you've set it up. 

This is a feature that has been suggested at our beta feedback forum. We'll look at adding this capability to the product soon. 

With Beta 6 StackHash is getting close to release. We have a few more features to add and a few bugs to fix before we hit 1.0 but the product is already making WinQual faster and more productive for many of you.

We are tremendously grateful to our beta testers for helping to shake out the kinks and for shaping the product through the feedback forum and many conversations over the past few months. 

For the month of September we're offering beta tester-only pricing with the following benefits:

• 50% discount on all licenses.
• License term starts when StackHash 1.0 ships.
• Priority bug tracking integration (more on this below).

After a few months of running our WinQual usage survey we have some data to share. If you haven't taken the survey yet please do, we'll post updates if additional results start to paint a different picture.

So far we've received responses from a wide range of companies. The split between B2C and B2B is roughly 50/50 and we've heard from a handful of line of business developers.

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Over the past months I've talked to quite a few companies that develop for Windows and yet don't participate in WinQual. I keep hearing two reasons — a puzzling one and a valid but possibly misguided one.

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I'm sure most readers of this blog will know that the WinQual site has been undergoing maintenance for the last couple of weeks. This has led to decreased site availability and in particular long periods of time where it's impossible to download cabs. We've been working to improve the sync experience in StackHash and Beta 6 introduces some major changes.

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StackHash makes it easy to search and filter your WinQual events. Type ‘kernel32’ in the search box and hit enter and StackHash will list all the events containing this text. If a product is selected StackHash will search events for that product, otherwise all mapped products are searched.

When text search isn't enough you can query most event, event info (hit) and cab fields. The example below will list all events with more than 100 hits:

You don't need to remember the name for each field. Click the last icon in the search toolbar to open the Search Builder window:

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Beta 5 fixes a number of synchronization problems including missing events, hits and cabs. The Cab download stage now includes a configurable retry count and timeout so temporary connection problems don't prevent a sync from completing. 

We've added an editable reference field to the event list. This is designed to store a tracking number from your defect management system. Just click the cell and type to enter your reference. This field is indexed so once you've entered your bug ID it will appear in search results. 

The client now restores the main window position, column widths/order and splitter positions. Drag the columns into the order that makes most sense to you and you'll get the same view each time you open StackHash. 

We've also added an export feature, one of the most requested items from our feedback forum. You can export the list of mapped products for the current profile and there are two options to export the event list. The first exports all events for the currently selected product. The second exports events, event infos (hit data) and cab information. The export format is similar to the XML from WinQual with the addition of extra fields from StackHash.

Install Beta 5 from the usual place, or use the Check for Updates option on the Help menu. If you don't have StackHash yet sign up for our beta program.

StackHash Beta 4 improves the WinQual synchronization experience as this now happens completely in the background. You can keep using the client while the sync runs and use the new View -> Refresh (or Ctrl-R) to get the latest data. The status bar shows sync progress so you can see when events and cabs are completed for each product. We've also updated our service to use the raw ATOM feeds from WinQual to speed up the sync process.

It's now possible to add Visual Studio to the list of local debuggers and to select a default debugger to use when you hit F5. If you're using the Debugging Tools for Windows on a 64-bit machine StackHash will automatically select which WinDbg architecture to launch based on the architecture of the target minidump. You can also now override the default debugger by right-clicking a cab.

Proxy servers are now supported for both the client and service. For a fresh install click the ‘Proxy Settings’ link on the first page of the setup wizard. For existing installs you can find proxy server settings in Tools -> Client Options and Tools -> Service Options.

Other changes include:

1. Hide products that are disabled for synchronization (on the View menu).
2. Test your WinQual credentials (profile settings in Tools -> Service Options).
3. Richer context menus throughout the client.
4. Open the WinQual event list or event details pages (right-click a product or event).
5. Improved service status window.

The software track at the 2010 Windows Summit opened today. Make sure you check out Kevin Hill's session on Windows Error Reporting, the WinQual site, and the Application Restart and Recovery APIs:

Beta 3 adds the feature that has been requested most so far — you can now pick which products to synchronize with WinQual. This means you don't have to waste time downloading data for old releases. It also means you can install different StackHash instances to manage different products.

We've also added a setup wizard to help you get started faster. The wizard guides you through creating your first profile, pointing StackHash at the 32 and 64-bit installs of Debugging Tools for Windows and then choosing products to synchronize.

Beta 3 is now available to download. You can get access by signing up for the StackHash beta program.