Best way to have crash dumps generated when processes crash?

One of the best way to have an automatic dump for any/specific process on Windows is to configure a set of entries in the registry. I tried the below on Windows 7 64 bit.

Open notepad.exe, paste the below entry and save it as "EnableDump.reg". You can give any name you wish.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps]
"DumpFolder"=hex(2):44,00,3a,00,5c,00,64,00,75,00,6d,00,70,00,00,00
"DumpCount"=dword:00000010
"DumpType"=dword:00000002
"CustomDumpFlags"=dword:00000000

Double click the "EnableDump.reg" and select 'Yes'. I have given the dump folder as 'd:\dump'. You can change it to whatever folder you wish.

Try to execute a crashing application, Windows will display the error dialog. Choose 'Close the Program' option. After that you will see the dump in the configured folder. The name of the dump file will be .exe..dmp.

For more details, you can refer the below link.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb787181(VS.85).aspx

Below explanation is based on another answer, but the logic is mine (without attribution need, as said on my profile);

Having your own dump generation framework which automatically creates a process dump when any Unhandled exception is encountered, would avoid clients having to install WinDbg.

At the application start up use SetUnhandledExceptionFilter(...) Win32 API to register a callback (i.e. application level exception-handler). Now the registered callback function is called whenever there is any exception which is not handled. You may then create the process dump using MiniDumpWriteDump(...) API from DbgHelp.dll.

C++ Sample ^{(unicode-enabled)}

header-file

#ifndef CRASH_REPORTER_H
#define CRASH_REPORTER_H

//Exclude rarely used content from the Windows headers.
#ifndef WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
#    define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
#    include <windows.h>
#    undef WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
#else
#    include <windows.h>
#endif
#include <tchar.h>
#include <DbgHelp.h>

class CrashReporter {
public:
    inline CrashReporter() { Register(); }
    inline ~CrashReporter() { Unregister(); }

    inline static void Register() {
        if(m_lastExceptionFilter != NULL) {
            fprintf(stdout, "CrashReporter: is already registered\n");
            fflush(stdout);
        }
        SetErrorMode(SEM_FAILCRITICALERRORS);
        //ensures UnHandledExceptionFilter is called before App dies.
        m_lastExceptionFilter = SetUnhandledExceptionFilter(UnHandledExceptionFilter);
    }
    inline static void Unregister() {
        SetUnhandledExceptionFilter(m_lastExceptionFilter);
    }

private:
    static LPTOP_LEVEL_EXCEPTION_FILTER m_lastExceptionFilter;
    static LONG WINAPI UnHandledExceptionFilter(_EXCEPTION_POINTERS *);
};


#endif // CRASH_REPORTER_H

source-file

#include "crash-report.h"

#include <stdio.h>

LPTOP_LEVEL_EXCEPTION_FILTER CrashReporter::m_lastExceptionFilter = NULL;

typedef BOOL (WINAPI *MiniDumpWriteDumpFunc)(HANDLE hProcess, DWORD ProcessId
        , HANDLE hFile
        , MINIDUMP_TYPE DumpType
        , const MINIDUMP_EXCEPTION_INFORMATION *ExceptionInfo
        , const MINIDUMP_USER_STREAM_INFORMATION *UserStreamInfo
        , const MINIDUMP_CALLBACK_INFORMATION *Callback
    );

LONG WINAPI CrashReporter::UnHandledExceptionFilter(struct _EXCEPTION_POINTERS *exceptionPtr)
{
    //we load DbgHelp.dll dynamically, to support Windows 2000
    HMODULE hModule = ::LoadLibraryA("DbgHelp.dll");
    if (hModule) {
        MiniDumpWriteDumpFunc dumpFunc = reinterpret_cast<MiniDumpWriteDumpFunc>(
                    ::GetProcAddress(hModule, "MiniDumpWriteDump")
                );
        if (dumpFunc) {
            //fetch system time for dump-file name
            SYSTEMTIME  SystemTime;
            ::GetLocalTime(&SystemTime);
            //choose proper path for dump-file
            wchar_t dumpFilePath[MAX_PATH] = {0};
            _snwprintf_s(dumpFilePath, MAX_PATH, L"crash_%04d-%d-%02d_%d-%02d-%02d.dmp"
                    , SystemTime.wYear, SystemTime.wMonth, SystemTime.wDay
                    , SystemTime.wHour, SystemTime.wMinute, SystemTime.wSecond
                );
            //create and open the dump-file
            HANDLE hFile = ::CreateFileW( dumpFilePath, GENERIC_WRITE
                    , FILE_SHARE_WRITE
                    , NULL
                    , CREATE_ALWAYS
                    , FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL | FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN
                    , NULL
                );

            if (hFile != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
                _MINIDUMP_EXCEPTION_INFORMATION exceptionInfo;
                exceptionInfo.ThreadId          = GetCurrentThreadId();
                exceptionInfo.ExceptionPointers = exceptionPtr;
                exceptionInfo.ClientPointers    = NULL;
                //at last write crash-dump to file
                bool ok = dumpFunc(::GetCurrentProcess(), ::GetCurrentProcessId()
                        , hFile, MiniDumpNormal
                        , &exceptionInfo, NULL, NULL
                    );
                //dump-data is written, and we can close the file
                CloseHandle(hFile);
                if (ok) {
                    //Return from UnhandledExceptionFilter and execute the associated exception handler.
                    //  This usually results in process termination.
                    return EXCEPTION_EXECUTE_HANDLER;
                }
            }
        }
    }
    //Proceed with normal execution of UnhandledExceptionFilter.
    //  That means obeying the SetErrorMode flags,
    //  or invoking the Application Error pop-up message box.
    return EXCEPTION_CONTINUE_SEARCH;
}

usage

#include "3rdParty/crash-report.h"

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    CrashReporter crashReporter;
    (void)crashReporter; //prevents unused warnings

    // [application main loop should be here]

    return 0;
}

Windows XP: The following steps enable automatic crash dumps:

1) Open a command prompt, running as administrator
2) Run drwtsn32 -i. This will install Doctor Watson as the default debugger when something crashes
3) Click Ok
4) From the command prompt, run drwtsn32
5) Set the Crash Dump path to your favorite directory, or leave the default.
6) Set the Crash Dump Type to mini. Note that under some circumstances, we may ask you for a full crash dump.
7) Make sure the Dump All Thread Contexts and Create Crash Dump File options are selected.
8) Click Ok
9) If a user.dmp file already exists in the Crash Dump path, delete it.

Windows 7: Location is:

C:\Users[Current User when app crashed]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive