How Can I Generate Minidumps to Analyze Windows Process Crashes?

Generating Minidumps for Crash Analysis in Windows

In the event of a process crash, capturing a minidump can provide valuable information for troubleshooting purposes. This article addresses common questions related to minidump creation.

1. Is the System Capable of Automatically Generating Minidumps?

Yes, the system can automatically create minidumps for user processes that crash. However, this feature must be enabled in the system settings under "System Properties" > "Advanced" > "Startup and Recovery". Ensure that the "Write an event to the system log" option is selected and the "Small memory dump (256 KB)" or "Large memory dump (1 MB)" option is specified.

2. Is Programmatic Creation of Minidumps Necessary?

If the automatic minidump creation mechanism is not enabled, or if custom information is required in the minidump, it is necessary to create minidumps programmatically. This can be achieved using the MiniDumpWriteDump function provided by the dbghelp.dll library.

3. Effectiveness of Minidumps for Crash Investigation

The effectiveness of minidumps depends on the nature of the crash and the level of optimization applied to the binary. For optimized binaries, minidumps may provide limited information due to inlining and register allocation. However, for many pure-virtual-function call errors, access violations, and other runtime exceptions, minidumps can be invaluable in pinpointing the source of the issue.

4. Additional Considerations

For improved stability and debugging capabilities, it is recommended to consider porting applications from VC6 to a more modern Visual Studio version.

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