What is “.load” in .load sos?

Question

In Visual Studio I use .load sos in the Immediate Window to load sos.dll. What is this '.load'? Is there some description for it?

In the Immediate Window I Can: Evaluate an expression (? varA), execute program command (varA=1) or execute VS commad (>cmd). Where is .load at this scheme? Can it be used on some other place (Command Window Macro)?

Answer 1

Is is a command for the unmanaged debugger. You'll need Project + Properties, Debug tab, "Enable unmanaged code debugging" option turned on and start debugging your program. After loading an extension with .load, you can get help for it by typing !help. Debugger extension commands start with . or !

You can get more info about debugger extensions from the debugger.chm help file that's included with the Debugging Tools for Windows package. It is no longer a separate download these days but included with the Windows SDK. Find it back in c:\program files (x86)\debugging tools for windows (x86) directory.

Answer 2

It loads a windbg extension.

In this case, the SOS extension.

See the WinDbg / SOS Cheat Sheet.