[asveikau]

It has a steep learning curve, but the package Microsoft calls "debugging tools for windows" (windbg, cdb, kd) really puts the VS debugger to shame, to the point where I am frustrated when I try to use it. If you want to point and click your way through variables I guess VS is OK, but if you want everything you might ever want to know about a process it is frustrating.

[endianswap]

You can use the WinDbg debugging engine as your debugging engine in Visual Studio, which allows you to combine the benefits of the IDE with the power of WinDbg virtually seamlessly.