Application disappears after starting - C++ linking managed code dll

Question

we have a problem with our applications. We have recently upgraded our toolchain to Visual Studio 2010 and friends, it all works fine on Windows Vista + Windows 7 developer machines and Windows 7 customer machines. (all x86)

Today we did a first installation to a client PC running Windows XP SP2 x86, and all applications linking managed code dll do not work. After starting the .exe seemingly nothing happens, no window pops up, no memory gets eaten, no task shows in task manager, nothing, nada. Event log is empty, everything is just as if the application returned to the OS right after the start.

I am at loss about this, I really don't know how should I start even debugging this problem. I don't want to install VS2010 and everything onto a Windows XP box, I'd like to try something less time intensive first.

This all is happening just to native C++ apps that link managed c++ DLL. Pure managed C# apps do work. Pure native C++ apps do work.

Answer 1

See if drwtsn32 is configured as the application debugger on the client pc. Check for "C:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Application Data\\Microsoft\\Dr Watson". If you have a log in that location, search for "fault ->" and you will find the address within the process that caused the access violation. From there, you can trace it back to a line in code.