Profiling ClickOnce applications deployed to IIS
Published 11 June 2013
It is possible to profile ClickOnce applications that are installed locally or only available through Internet Information Server.
ClickOnce deployments send the application to the local computer to be run in a secure environment, so it is possible to profile applications whether they are deployed to the local installation of IIS or on a remote webserver running IIS. There are two ways to launch a ClickOnce application using ANTS Profiler. You may use Internet Explorer, or if you prefer, bypass IE and use the "shim" provided by Windows.
To profile a ClickOnce application using Internet Explorer, use the following settings:
- .NET Executable: c:\program files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
- Arguments: <url to the clickonce application, ie http://myserver/myapp/my.application>
To profile a ClickOnce application without the need to launch IE:
- .NET Executable: c:\windows\system32\rundll32.exe
- Arguments: dfshim,ShOpenVerbApplication http://myserver/myapp/my.application
Provided that the profiler is configured to profile child processes, it will show results for the ClickOnce application once it has been deployed. In order to profile methods that have source or see results in the source code window, it may be necessary to profile the ClickOnce application on the same computer where it had been built and deployed to the local installation of IIS.