title: Debugging release build on a client's machine
body: <p>We have a native C++ Win32 .exe built using Visual Studio 2005 that works flawlessly on all the machines we've tested in-house on (XP 32-bit, Vista 32-bit &amp; Windows 7 64-bit). But of course, it crashes repeatedly on a client's 32-bit Vista machine.</p>
  
  <p>Digging around on several websites I found tidbits that indicate if I ship the PDB files (vc80.pdb &amp; <em>projectName</em>.pdb) along with the Release build of the executable to the customer, there is some way of generating minidumps when a crash occurs. I can then load the crash dump into Visual Studio and get a stack trace and some other useful information. Microsoft's Dr. Watson utility also seems to be involved in this process. </p>
  
  <p>But I can't find any clear instructions on the steps to follow to make this happen </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>what files to ship?</li>
  <li>how to get a crash dump to be generated?</li>
  <li>and how to load this into VS?</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Can someone please describe this process?</p>