My memory is fuzzy but I seem to recall that Windows Vista introduced an ability to know why an application crashed. But I cannot remember the name of the feature.
My intent is that if my application crashed for some unknown reason, the next time it starts up I'd like to know why - or even just to know that it happened. Does anyone remember the name of this API?
I'm not familiar with such an API, but Windows Vista did introduce three major areas of functionality that might be what you're thinking of:
If you're interested in knowing application crash details (e.g., exception code, faulting module, call stack, etc.) from deployed installations, I highly recommend signing up for a Windows Error Reporting (aka Winqual) account, then collecting and analyzing the crash data. You don't need to add any special diagnostic code to your application; the default unhandled exception code in the OS will automatically collect the appropriate data and send a report.