Generating .NET crash dumps automatically

Question

I know how to generate Crash Dump files with ADPlus or DebugDiag, but I\'m wondering if there is a way to do this on a customer\'s computer without installing these tools...

Answer 1

You can configure Windows Error Reporting (WER) to create a crash dump in a specific directory using the following registry script:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps]
"DumpFolder"="C:\\Dumps"
"DumpCount"=dword:00000064
"DumpType"=dword:00000002
"CustomDumpFlags"=dword:00000000

The dump will go into C:\Dumps with a name that reflects the name of the process that crashed. DumpType=2 gives a full memory dump. DumpType=1 gives a mini dump. On 64 bit machines, you do not need to put these under the Wow32 nodes. WER only uses the non-WOW registry key specified above.

Depending on the type of crash, this method may not work. I have yet to figure out why or which crash types it doesn't catch. Anyone?