Debugging "Application.exe has stopped working" with .NET

Question

On a customer's computer, my application immediately crashes with the message "Application.exe has stopped working".

I'm using .NET Framework 2.0.

I'm using a catch-all exception handler in the Main method. The main method doesn't use any of the project assemblies. Therefore, if it was a missing assembly, this exception handler should get called.

I do not have access to the client computer. How can I debug this problem?

Your assumption is not correct, the JIT compiler can inline methods. — Hans Passant, Jul 05 '12 at 17:31
Yes, the framework is installed. Hans, good thought. I just checked this by removing the most important DLL, and my program catches it just fine. — LTR, Jul 06 '12 at 06:23

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 05 '12 at 15:21

1

Compile your application in Debug mode, give it to the client, hopefully next time it happens the JIT debugger will kick off and give you a stack-trace.

You could also look at increase your logging verbosity. Using something like Nlog and some logging goes far to detecting issues. Have a peek at the nlog tutorial. Logging is something which is massively underused in most development tasks today :(

answered Jul 05 '12 at 15:21

John Mitchell

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He can check also the OS event viewer – Sergio Rosas Jul 05 '12 at 15:22
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@sunrisas thats true, but not all logs go there :( its a great resource but active logging is massivly helpful in a situation like this. – John Mitchell Jul 05 '12 at 15:24

Debugging "Application.exe has stopped working" with .NET

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