VBS Stop not triggering Just In Time Debugger

Question

I am having serious trouble getting the JIT debugger event trigger when using the Stop statement on my scripts.

Me an 2 other coworkers have been doing research on the issue and none of us can figure out what is the problem. We have uninstalled and reinstalled Microsoft script editor, and we have updated the registry values, we have added ourselves to the debugger users group. We have admin rights etc.

Not using this debugger is not an option, is a project requirement but we cant get it to work on 2 of our machines. However, the team leads machine does work. but we have 2 machines that the debug event does not trigger. When comparing settings everything seems to be in order.

We have followed the instructions on MSDN and various other found around the web.

Answer 1

Is MDM.exe running in Task Manager? (it's a service, Machine Debug Manager).

cscript //x nameofscript.vbs work?

Answer 2

stumbled on this post one year after... hope in the meantime you found a solution.

I have too the problem when I need to JIT-Debug my VBS Scripts; I 've realized that the debugger won't fire up upon Stop statement but only in case an Exception is thrown; After you are in debug mode, then, Stop statements should work again, but you need to generate an exception in order to invoke the debugger.

When I need to break a VBScript, I usually put a call to a non-existing function in order to intentionally cause an ecxeption: this will trigger the debugger and I'm able to work with it.

Sample code:

    (do something) 
    DEBUG_INVOKE        ' Function DEBUG_INVOKE does not exist => Exception.
                        ' you can actually type whatever you want,  eg. 'stp', 'stopp', 'xxx', etc.
                        ' provided, of course, it's NOT the name of a Sub or Function present in 
                        ' your script.
    (do other stuff)

After you enter debug mode, then, you may not be able to move from break position: it depends on the debugger: I know, i.e. that MS Script Debugger and Visual Studio 2015 Community Ed. do like this, while MS Script Editor and Visual Studio 2010 Professional allow you to move the pointer and do step-by-step debugging. Still investigating on this!

HTH,

Max - Italy