If you're one of those people who prefer to copy and paste rather than originate (I know I am!) then this is for you: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=08e3d5f8-033d-420b-a3b1-3074505c03f3&displaylang=en">http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=08e3d5f8-033d-420b-a3b1-3074505c03f3&displaylang=en

It's an installation of various self-contained VB and C# projects. Go on, you know you should!

BTW - 101 is American for basic/preparatory!

Trapping Application.Run(new Form1()) exceptions works great in the debugger, but not at all in release mode:

   try
   {
    Application.Run(new Form1());
   }
   catch (Exception ex)
   {
    MessageBox.Show("Error: " + ex.Message);
   }

Turns out that Application is running your form on a different thread than the one you are catching, so you have to trap that thread instead:

    // Creates an instance ofthe methods that will handle the exception.
    CustomExceptionHandler eh = new CustomExceptionHandler();
 
    // Adds the event handler to to the event.
    Application.ThreadException += new ThreadExceptionEventHandler(eh.OnThreadException);
    Application.Run(new Form1());

You will also need the class that handles the event: 

  internal class CustomExceptionHandler
  {
 
   // Handles the exception event.
   public void OnThreadException(object sender, ThreadExceptionEventArgs t)
   {
    DialogResult result = DialogResult.Cancel;
    try
    {
     result = this.ShowThreadExceptionDialog(t.Exception);
    }
    catch
    {
     try
     {
      MessageBox.Show("Fatal Error", "Fatal Error", MessageBoxButtons.AbortRetryIgnore, MessageBoxIcon.Stop);
     }
     finally
     {
      Application.Exit();
     }
    }

    // Exits the program when the user clicks Abort.
    if (result == DialogResult.Abort)
     Application.Exit();
   }
 
   // Creates the error message and displays it.
   private DialogResult ShowThreadExceptionDialog(Exception e)
   {
    string errorMsg = "An error occurred please contact the adminstrator with the following information:\n\n";
    errorMsg = errorMsg + e.Message + "\n\nStack Trace:\n" + e.StackTrace;
    return MessageBox.Show(errorMsg, "Application Error", MessageBoxButtons.AbortRetryIgnore, MessageBoxIcon.Stop);
   }
  }

My thanks to Mark Conboy for providing this code (he found it on Technet)