Symbol server technology is built into Debugging Tools for Windows. Microsoft provides access to an Internet symbol server that contains symbol files for the Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000 operating systems, as well as other Microsoft products.

The Internet symbol server is populated with a variety of Windows symbols for Microsoft Windows operating systems, including hot fixes, Service Packs, Security Rollup Packages, and retail releases. Symbols are also available on the server for current Betas and Release Candidates for Windows products, plus a variety of other Microsoft products, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.

If you have access to the Internet during debugging, you can configure the debugger to download symbols as needed during a debugging session, rather than downloading symbol files separately before a debugging session. The symbols are downloaded to a directory location that you specify and then the debugger loads them from there.