Microsoft Time Travel Tracing Tool or TTTracer.exe is a support tool that can be used for diagnosing problems. This diagnostic tool can be used to collect time travel traces of given processes so that the traces will be analyzed by Microsoft Support for troubleshooting purposes. It is designed to upload trace files up to 2 GB after compression.
Microsoft Time Travel Tracing Diagnostic Tool
Time Travel Tracing or iDNA tracing consists of two elements says MSDN:
- A utility to capture TTT trace
- An extension to Windbg that allows loading the trace for analysis
When the trace is loaded into WinDbg, it allows the user to move back and forth in the process execution time. It thus helps users debug Windows interoperability behaviors without the need to reproduce the problem or remote live debugging.
- When you run the Time Travel Tracing diagnostic, you will be prompted to select one of the tracing options:
- Select one or more processes from a list of currently running applications on your computer.
- Select one or more processes by entering the name of the program.
- Select one or more processes by entering the name of a matching module that the program loaded.
- Define one program that will be traced after it starts.
The collected traces will be automatically compressed and uploaded to Microsoft Support. If the file size is more than 2 GB even after compression, then some of the files will not be uploaded but will be left back on your system. You may then need to contact support to ask for an alternative way to upload the remaining collected information.
You can read more details about Time Travel Tracing Diagnostic on KB2716889.
Related Links:
- If you are facing Printing issues and want to learn how to use Time Travel Tracing Tool, see KB2728320.
- To learn about the data collected by the Time Travel Trace and Network Capture diagnostic, visit KB2853429.
How to run the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool in Windows may also interest you.

- Tags: Troubleshoot