Windows Forms Application won't run on another PC

Question

I've got a huge problem. I was writting an WFA + C++/CLI DLL application. Everything worked fine until I had to sent it to my friend. Every time he executed the exe file from bin/debug (+additional dll and xml files) nothing happened (he doesn't have Visual Studio installed). The problem doesn't occur to me. On my PC everything works fine.

What i noticed (after couple of hours looking up the solution) is that somehow this is the critical moment :

log = new StreamWriter("log.txt", true);
log.WriteLine("3c");
log.Close();

materialTypeComboBox.SelectedIndex = 0;

log = new StreamWriter("log.txt", true);
log.WriteLine("3d");
log.Close();

"3c" is the last line in my simple log file every time my friend execute this. If I comment this, app crashes on

foreach (RadioButton item in someGroupBox.Controls.OfType<RadioButton>()) { ... }

Seems like WFA's Controls cause that effect, but how is it possible? I tried changing target framework form 3.5 to 4.5.1, building project in Debug and Relase mode, x86, x64, using a installShield projects (I thought I missed some references while sending him the app), one-click installer, creating empty project and paste sources - without any success.

How could it be? No exception, no message box, nothing. Just click and nothing happens. Does anybody know some solution?

A. does the program exit immediately after launch? check the task manager. B. check event viewer, there ought to be something log somewhere by the system. — kennyzx

Matt Jacobi Matt Jacobi · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-31T03:23:06

Windows Forms is renown for it's ability to silently swallow exceptions. I would highly recommend logging unhandled exceptions. To log unhandled exceptions, do the following:

Application.ThreadException += new ThreadExceptionEventHandler(UnhandledUIException);
Application.SetUnhandledExceptionMode(UnhandledExceptionMode.CatchException);
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.UnhandledException += new UnhandledExceptionEventHandler(UnhandledException);


private static void UnhandledUIException(object sender, ThreadExceptionEventArgs e)
{
    // Log exception
}

private static void UnhandledException(object sender, UnhandledExceptionEventArgs e)
{
    // Log exception
}

Info: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.appdomain.unhandledexception.aspx

Info: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.application.threadexception.aspx

Windows Forms Application won't run on another PC

2 Answers