Knowledge base

Attach to process unavailable with some anti-virus software

Date: 6/10/2011
Product: ANTS Memory Profiler, ANTS Performance Profiler

When using ANTS Memory Profiler or ANTS Performance Profiler, you may find that you cannot attach to any .NET 4 process. This can be caused by anti-virus software.

To create the list of .NET 4 processes you can attach to, the profiler checks all running processes to check whether they are managed processes. For managed processes, the profiler obtains the CLR version number.

Processes that are part of some anti-virus programs protect themselves by changing their entries in the Access Control List. If a running process is protected in this way, the profiler cannot check the CLR version of that process, or of any other running processes.

To work around this problem, uninstall your anti-virus software while profiling.