If you haven't checked out the CLR Profiler, it is a pretty cool tool.  It's free from Microsoft and it allows you to do some profiling of applications - apps, services, or asp.net sites.  It may not compete with the high end fancy profilers that are available for purchase, but you get some decent functionality for free.

I'm no expert on this product, in fact, I have only used it a few times to do a few specific things.  Last night I needed to use it on my laptop (never had it on that machine before) and I found myself struggling to get it up and running.  The weird part is that it felt strangely familiar, like I had the same problem when I used it a few months prior.  So I'm writing this post for 2 reasons.  Hopefully it will help you if you have the same problem.  And also, hopefully in a few months when I start it again, if I hit the same problem, I'll search the Internet and find this post that I am leaving for myself!

First, make sure you have the correct version of CLR Profiler.  There are two versions available.  .Net Framework 1.1 and .Net Framework 2.0.  There is no version for the .Net Framework 3.5 but don't worry, the 2.0 version will do that trick.  The two versions look the same and surprisingly, if you search for CLR Profiler, most of the links that come up are for the 1.1 version.  So here are two links:

• CLR Profiler for .Net 1.1
• CLR Profiler for .Net 2.0  (Note:  A reader notified me that this link was incorrect.  It is fixed now, thanks!)
  

Now here is the part that got me this time...

I kept getting this message:  "Waiting for application to start common language runtime".

At the time, I was using Remote Desktop to my laptop.  That may have had something to do with my issue, but I'm not sure.  I re-installed CLR Profiler to make sure I hadn't installed the wrong version.  Same problem happens! 

But then I had a flash of genius (ok, maybe not genius) and my problem was solved:  I right clicked the CLRProfiler.exe and used "Run as administrator".  Everything works great.  Interestingly, it works for me today without using "Run as admin".  So was it my Remote Desktop interfering?  Could be.  But the bottom line is, "Run as administrator" solved the problem.  I hope this helps you too.