What is the best way to debug a crashing explorer.exe?

Question

I work for an orginization that has a custom built Access/SQL Application running in house. We have a problem Explorer.exe throwing an error and crashing.

This is a picture of the crash:

What is the best way to start tracking this problem down and finding a solution ?

Answer 1

Make sure WinDBG is installed, set it up as the default debugger then use Analyze and get a crash dump.

The next time you get that dialog click "OK" to attach in WinDbg

Answer 2

Keep in mind that if you attach a debugger to explorer, then break, that you should not try to do anything in the debugger that invokes a call to explorer or you will deadlock the debugger. This can be surprisingly tricky as it means you cannot open a "File Open" dialog, print, browse to another computer and any number of other things.