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I have some experience reverse engineering ELF files using tools like GDB, radare2, and Ghidra, but I am new to Windows debugging. There are quite a few different debuggers out there for Windows and family, and I was hoping that someone could give me a comparison of them, explaining the similarities and differences, which ones are outdated / obsolete, which are most popular, which are more well suited to certain tasks, etc.

Specifically, the Windows debuggers I have heard of and am most interested to learn more about are:

  • WinDbg
  • OllyDbg
  • Immunity Debugger
  • x32dbg / x64dbg

If there are any other debuggers that I didn't mention above that you feel should be part of the comparison, please feel free to include it in your answer.

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  • I have only experience with ollydbg and x32dbg/x64dbg. Basically x32dbg is an alternative to ollydbg that is still maintained and x64dbg is the 64-bit version of the same thing (which ollydbg doesn't have). For the tasks I need to perform, they are more than enough. In my opinion ollydbg should no longer be used because it is outdated for almost ten years - except e.g. used in an emulated win95/98.
    – WhatsUp
    Mar 5 at 0:03
  • Jetbrains wrote their own too for their IDE's when the license prohibited them from using WinDbg (so I understood). I do not know if they open sourced it.
    – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen
    Mar 13 at 19:58

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