How to get the name of a Win32 Thread?

Threads don't actually have names in Win32. The process via RaiseException is just a "Secret Handshake" with the VS Debugger, who actually stores the TID => Name mapping. Windows itself has no notion of a thread "Name".

Beginning with Windows 10, version 1607, you can now get the name of a thread using GetThreadDescription(), assuming SetThreadDescription() was used to set the name of the thread.

Here's an example:

HRESULT hr = GetThreadDescription(ThreadHandle, &data);if (SUCCEEDED(hr)){       wprintf(“%ls\m”, data);    LocalFree(data);}

Here's the documentation:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/mt774972(v=vs.85).aspx

There is no such WinAPI call since there exists no such thing as thread names.

If you set a thread name then the debugger of your IDE will store it for you, which makes it easier to debug.However the name is never really attached to the thread by a windows API call.

If you run your application without a debugger then setting a thread name has no effect, therefore you can't retrieve the name.

Even if it would be accessible - I wouldn't write code that works only with a debugger attached. Better store the name for yourself together with the handle.