Getting helpful error messages on Windows 7

Question

During Windows XP development, if my application encountered an unhandled exception it would display an error message "X has encountered and error..." and give me the option to launch the debugger. Under Windows 7, all I get is a message that says "X has stopped working, Windows is checking for a solution".

I can no longer see any details of the error message and I'm not given the option to debug.

I'm using VS2005 and JIT debugging is enabled as far as I can tell.

Is there anyway to get back to the useful error messages of WinXP?

Edit: It is just a standard WinForms desktop application, requiring no special permissions to run.

Answer 1

Maybe you find the WER (Windows Error Reporting) settings useful:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb513638%28VS.85%29.aspx

Also, you can use this as a landing point to get in touch with WER:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb513641%28v=VS.85%29.aspx

Unfortunately I can't directly answer your question, but perhaps this can serve as a hint for further researching.

Answer 2

OK, found an answer thanks to the comment from leppie.

1. Go to Control Panels->Action Center
2. Expand the Maintenance tab and select Settings under "Check for solutions to problem reports"
3. Change to "Never check for solutions"

Now when the error occurs there is a "Debug the program" option in the dialog.