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

I think if your app is hosed then you might as well take a shot at creating a mini dump file, what's the worst that's going to happen, your app will crash? It's doing that anyway, so you might as well try.
The code in the MSDN forum mentioned by VoiDed seems pretty solid. I needed a VB.Net version so here's a VB version for anyone that might need it:

Friend Class MiniDump
    'Code converted from C# code found here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/clr/thread/6c8d3529-a493-49b9-93d7-07a3a2d715dc

    Private Enum MINIDUMP_TYPE
        MiniDumpNormal = 0 
        MiniDumpWithDataSegs = 1
        MiniDumpWithFullMemory = 2
        MiniDumpWithHandleData = 4
        MiniDumpFilterMemory = 8
        MiniDumpScanMemory = 10
        MiniDumpWithUnloadedModules = 20
        MiniDumpWithIndirectlyReferencedMemory = 40
        MiniDumpFilterModulePaths = 80
        MiniDumpWithProcessThreadData = 100
        MiniDumpWithPrivateReadWriteMemory = 200
        MiniDumpWithoutOptionalData = 400
        MiniDumpWithFullMemoryInfo = 800
        MiniDumpWithThreadInfo = 1000
        MiniDumpWithCodeSegs = 2000
    End Enum

     _
    Private Shared Function MiniDumpWriteDump( _
         ByVal hProcess As IntPtr, _
         ByVal ProcessId As Int32, _
        ByVal hFile As IntPtr, _
         ByVal DumpType As MINIDUMP_TYPE, _
        ByVal ExceptionParam As IntPtr, _
         ByVal UserStreamParam As IntPtr, _
        ByVal CallackParam As IntPtr) As Boolean
    End Function

    Friend Shared Sub MiniDumpToFile(ByVal fileToDump As String)
        Dim fsToDump As IO.FileStream = Nothing

        If (IO.File.Exists(fileToDump)) Then
            fsToDump = IO.File.Open(fileToDump, IO.FileMode.Append)
        Else
            fsToDump = IO.File.Create(fileToDump)
        End If

        Dim thisProcess As Process = Process.GetCurrentProcess()
        MiniDumpWriteDump(thisProcess.Handle, _
                          thisProcess.Id, _
                          fsToDump.SafeFileHandle.DangerousGetHandle(), _
                          MINIDUMP_TYPE.MiniDumpNormal, _
                          IntPtr.Zero, _
                          IntPtr.Zero, _
                          IntPtr.Zero)
        fsToDump.Close()
    End Sub
End Class

Just make sure you solidly eception handle the calls to it and you should be relatively safe.