As a developer of commercial software, I am always worried about bugs
and crashes, especially ones that users encounter but I cannot
recreate here. One interesting tool is provided by Microsoft itself,
called Online Crash Analysis. This has a user's computer send some
simple data to Microsoft, which organizes it and provides it to the
developer in a nice database, so he can see what is crashing where. A
darned good idea, I think!

Unfortunately, Microsoft has not made it clear how developers actually
sign up and/or use this opportunity (even as an MSDN subscriber.) And
web searches on and off Microsoft's site don't turn up many clues.  In
parricular, are there fees? Annoying requirements?

I have found that for Windows XP DRIVER support, there is a
cerification program, which requires lots of $$$$, including a
manditory Verisign code signing at $400, to start. [link below.]  This
is part of the "certified for XP" microsoft program.

I am interested in this method because I first read about this kind of
crash reporting from the excellent book, Debugging Applications, by
John Robbins. [highly recommended!] No easy-to-use ready code there
though.

My question:
How can I use this kind of internet crash reporting? Good answers
would tell me more about Microsoft's tools (including fees and
steps).. or even about alternatives (perhaps other 3rd parties have
developed libraries of code to do this directly, perhaps by a user's
machine sending a report by email?).
Free and commercial systems are both interesting to learn about. 

I develop for mostly Windows, but a tool for Mac OSX would also be
useful!
My goal is mostly to be able to get an easy way for a beta-tester or
end-user to send me a message (by email, or web) that lets me
determine "ah, his program crashed HERE." Even the file+line number
alone is very useful.

Some links I've found some info from:

Microsoft's OCA site is mostly for USERS and how they can get status
reports: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/Welcome.asp

The only online information I've found (on or off Microsoft's site)
for DEVELOPERS is a short chat at: 
http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats/windows/windows_081502.asp

This chat references a site where developers can get the results of
crash analysis: https://winqual.microsoft.com/Default.asp