Vectored Exception Handling

Vectored exception handling provides a generic mechanism so that the developer does not have to rely on language-dependant keywords for exception handling. Windows provides the following APIs to use VEH:

1. AddVectoredExceptionHandler
   
2. RemoveVectoredExceptionHandler
   
3. AddVectoredContinueHandler
   
4. RemoveVectoredContinueHandler
   

All the VEH are called before the structured exception handlers (SEH). A programmer can choose to be first in the chain or the last in the chain of VEH while calling AddVectoredExceptionHandler. The Exception handlers can return EXCEPTION_CONTINUE_EXECUTION or EXCEPTION_CONTINUE_SEARCH depending on whether they have fixed the problem or not. The VEH mechanism also allows the programmer to add a ContinueHandler which is called in case of unhandled exceptions. The continuehandler is called after the global unhandled exception filter returns EXCEPTION_CONTINUE_SEARCH.

A VEH example can be seen in the MSDN. For more details on VEH, check http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc301714.aspx