Ellis Web

Global Application Error Handling in Windows Forms Applications

In my current project, I would like to log all Windows Forms errors, including those that are not caught explicitly. Lacking a built-in method (like Application_Error in the Global.asax file of an ASP.net application), I needed another way to easily catch all errors. After a bit of searching, I found a solution by Craig Andera: WinForms Catch-All Exception Handling. Here is the short version:

In the main entry point for your application (found by default in the Progrsm.cs file, Main() method), add a listener for the Application.ThreadException event.

[STAThread]
static void Main() {
  Application.ThreadException += new System.Threading.ThreadExceptionEventHandler(Application_ThreadException);
  Application.Run(new Form1());
}

private static void Application_ThreadException(object sender, System.Threading.ThreadExceptionEventArgs e) {
  // Handle Exception
}

This should allow you to catch all Exceptions in your application that were not caught at the source.