Question

I have developed in c# 2 applications. One ASP .NET web service and a WinForms client that uses the web service. The client is distributed to many customers. For one of these customers, suddenly the application started throwing the following exception:

External component has thrown an exception.
at System.Diagnostics.SharedPerformanceCounter.GetCounter(String counterName, String instanceName, Boolean enableReuse, PerformanceCounterInstanceLifetime lifetime)
at System.Diagnostics.SharedPerformanceCounter..ctor(String catName, String counterName, String instanceName, PerformanceCounterInstanceLifetime lifetime)
at System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter.Initialize()
at System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter.set_RawValue(Int64 value)
at System.Net.NetworkingPerfCounters.Initialize()
at System.Net.Configuration.SettingsSectionInternal..ctor(SettingsSection section)
at System.Net.Configuration.SettingsSectionInternal.get_Section()
at System.Net.ServicePointManager.set_Expect100Continue(Boolean value)
at #Neh.#hgh.#P0f(String[] args)

The obfuscated (using SmartAssembly 5) function at the end of the exception, is client’s main function which is as follows

public static void Main(string[] args) {
    try {
        AppDomain.CurrentDomain.UnhandledException += new UnhandledExceptionEventHandler(CurrentDomain_UnhandledException);
        Application.ThreadException += new System.Threading.ThreadExceptionEventHandler(Application_ThreadException);

        System.Net.ServicePointManager.Expect100Continue = false;
        Application.EnableVisualStyles();
        Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);

        Globals.Settings.NoWaitPrintJobs = true;
        Application.Run(new frmMain());
    }
    catch(Exception ex) {
        HandleUnhandledException(ex);
    }
}

From the exception I understand that it is breaking at line

System.Net.ServicePointManager.Expect100Continue = false;

The application doesn’t reference any interop components, just other managed dlls. It’s also using a native function in shell32.dll

[DllImport("shell32.dll")]
static extern bool SHGetSpecialFolderPath(IntPtr hwndOwner, [Out] StringBuilder lpszPath, int nFolder, bool fCreate);

that is being called on main form load event from a static object.

Globals.Settings.InitLocalFiles();

I don’t know the customer’s computer specifications yet. I think he has Windows XP.
Any thoughts please?

Answer 1

Looks like the user account running the client doesn’t have the correct permissions, to use performance counters

see 'UnauthorizedAccessException' – 'Global\.net clr networking'

This makes the network classes not use the performance counters.