USB EVENT TRACING - WINDOWS MESSAGE ANALYZER

WINDOWS MESSAGE ANALYZER:

INTRODUCTION

Windows Message Analyzer is a free tool provided by Microsoft which has combined capablities of event tracing and viewing the trace under one user interface. It is simpler to analyze USB event traces in Windows Message Analyzer.
In the previous method .etl generation is done separately using logman tool and .etl viewing is done separately through event viewer or network monitor or any other tools. So message analyzer combines these discrete steps into a single window and makes the process simpler. You can also use export option to view the same trace using network monitor as well if in case netmon is your prefered trace viewer.

DOWNLOADING WINDOWS MESSAGE ANALYZER

Follow this link Windows message analyzer download to download. The installation process is simple.

STEPS FOR USB TRACING

• Open the Windows message analyzer and select 'capture/trace' option from the left pane.

• From the 'trace scenarios' column we can select either USB 2.0 or USB 3.0.

• As already known USB 3.0 tracing support (for XHCI) will only be provided by windows 8+ pc which has necessary trace providers.

• Select the necessary trace providers from the list in 'trace scenario configuration' pane.

• We can select the filter parameters for the particular trace provider using message type(information, error etc.) and keywords (parameters available for particular trace provider) from box below the trace scenario configuration pane.

• Filters can also be added before starting an event trace in the 'trace filter' pane.

• After all these configurations are complete, 'start with' button can be pressed to start the trace.

• After starting the trace a new window with all trace information will open.

• Restart, stop, pause options are available and can be used according to necessities.

• There is also a filter option in this window which can be used to filter traced data.

• Each and every message can be expanded to view the field data which contains the information about data packets and stack data which contains the event id, process id etc.

• After finishing the tracing part, we can save it for future reference as .matp file for viewing it in message analyzer.

• If you wish to view a particular trace using any other tools like netmon, export option should be used which saves the traced file as .cap.

TWO METHODS OF FILTERING

• Right click button can be best utilized for filtering a trace according to particular parameters.
• Right click can be used in any of the columns of the message window separately or inside the field and stack data.

COLUMN FILTERING

A rightclick in any one of the columns will filter according to data in that column. We can also add columns of our choice and then add a filter with the column data available. For example, we can add a column call usb device and filter messages from a particular usb device connected.

FIELD OR STACK FILTERING

A right click in any data on field or stack information will add the corresponding filter to the view filter box.

Comment and criticize our mistakes !!

-ARUN

Embedded Engineer