I found that gdb (tested 7.5 and 7.4) on win 32 (tested on vista) does ignore --all as argument for the debuggee. -exec-arguments --all start gdb with gdb -i mi yourexe.exe and enter -exec-arguments --all -exec-run the exe will not see the argument. It works with any other argument, that I tested. Does any one know why? Or how to solve?