Where should symbol files be stored and accessed?
By far, the most common place for symbol files to reside is next to the component they were generated for. For example, if you have a program called HelloWorld.exe, you will typically have a HelloWorld.pdb file residing in the same folder. The debugger can and will automatically load these symbol files when debugging. Symbol files can also be archived to folders other than next to their component. When this occurs, the debugger has to be told where to find them. In Visual Studio this is typically done by specifying a set of paths. This setting can be found in Tools->Options->Debugging->Symbols. If your symbol files are being archived on a machine that is on a network, then be sure to consider setting a local symbol cache. The debugger will use this local folder to copy the symbol files it needs and will ultimately result in much better performance of your debugging sessions.
