diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index f3167d63..7df0e640 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -3026,6 +3026,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "Inflector",
  "alacritty_terminal",
  "anyhow",
+ "backtrace",
  "base64",
  "bytemuck",
  "chrono",
@@ -3077,6 +3078,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "tracing-subscriber",
  "unicode-width",
  "url",
+ "windows-sys 0.48.0",
  "zip",
 ]
 
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 6ec896fd..d78bf8c0 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ authors = ["Dongdong Zhou <dzhou121@gmail.com>"]
 
 [workspace.dependencies]
 anyhow = "1.0"
+backtrace = "0.3"
 chrono = "0.4"
 clap = { version = "3.2.25", features = ["derive"] }
 crossbeam-channel = "0.5.8"
@@ -98,6 +99,10 @@ package = "tracing-appender"
 git = "https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty"
 rev = "6071a7bf35cfd99be8ba70f479f188b7370cda6f"
 
+[workspace.dependencies.windows-sys]
+version = "0"
+features = ["Win32_Foundation"]
+
 [profile.release-lto]
 inherits = "release"
 lto = true
diff --git a/lapce-app/Cargo.toml b/lapce-app/Cargo.toml
index 66604b7f..e3fd82e2 100644
--- a/lapce-app/Cargo.toml
+++ b/lapce-app/Cargo.toml
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ edition.workspace = true
 [dependencies]
 alacritty_terminal.workspace = true
 anyhow.workspace = true
+backtrace.workspace = true
 chrono.workspace = true
 clap.workspace = true
 crossbeam-channel.workspace = true
@@ -66,6 +67,14 @@ globset = "0.4.9"
 fs_extra = "1.2.0"
 dmg = "0.1.1"
 
+[target.'cfg(windows)'.dependencies.windows-sys]
+workspace = true
+features = [
+    "Win32_Foundation",
+    "Win32_System_Threading",
+    "Win32_UI_WindowsAndMessaging",
+]
+
 [features]
 default = ["all-languages", "updater"]
 portable = ["lapce-core/portable"]
diff --git a/lapce-app/src/app.rs b/lapce-app/src/app.rs
index f4c64e69..ff9a7095 100644
--- a/lapce-app/src/app.rs
+++ b/lapce-app/src/app.rs
@@ -3373,6 +3373,8 @@ pub fn launch() {
     let (reload_handle, _guard) = logging();
     tracing::info!("Starting up Lapce..");
 
+    panic_hook();
+
     // if PWD is not set, then we are not being launched via a terminal
     #[cfg(any(target_os = "macos", target_os = "linux"))]
     if std::env::var("PWD").is_err() {
@@ -3419,7 +3421,16 @@ pub fn launch() {
     crate::update::cleanup();
 
     let _ = lapce_proxy::register_lapce_path();
-    let db = Arc::new(LapceDb::new().unwrap());
+    let db = match LapceDb::new() {
+        Ok(db) => Arc::new(db),
+        Err(e) => {
+            #[cfg(windows)]
+            error_modal("Error", &format!("Failed to create LapceDb: {e}"));
+            #[cfg(not(windows))]
+            error!("Failed to create LapceDb: {e}");
+            std::process::exit(1);
+        }
+    };
     let scope = Scope::new();
     provide_context(db.clone());
 
@@ -3737,6 +3748,74 @@ pub fn window_menu(
         )
 }
 
+fn panic_hook() {
+    std::panic::set_hook(Box::new(move |info| {
+        let thread = std::thread::current();
+        let thread = thread.name().unwrap_or("main");
+        let backtrace = backtrace::Backtrace::new();
+
+        let payload = if let Some(s) = info.payload().downcast_ref::<&str>() {
+            s
+        } else {
+            "<unknown>"
+        };
+
+        match info.location() {
+            Some(loc) => {
+                error!(
+                    target: "lapce_app::panic_hook",
+                    "thread {thread} panicked at {} | file://./{}:{}:{}\n{:?}",
+                    payload,
+                    loc.file(), loc.line(), loc.column(),
+                    backtrace,
+                );
+            }
+            None => {
+                error!(
+                    target: "lapce_app::panic_hook",
+                    "thread {thread} panicked at {}\n{:?}",
+                    payload,
+                    backtrace,
+                );
+            }
+        }
+
+        #[cfg(windows)]
+        error_modal("Error", &info.to_string());
+    }))
+}
+
+#[cfg(windows)]
+fn error_modal(title: &str, msg: &str) -> i32 {
+    use std::iter::once;
+    use std::os::windows::prelude::OsStrExt;
+    use std::{ffi::OsStr, mem};
+    use windows::Win32::UI::WindowsAndMessaging::{
+        MessageBoxW, MB_ICONERROR, MB_SYSTEMMODAL,
+    };
+
+    let result: i32;
+
+    let title = OsStr::new(title)
+        .encode_wide()
+        .chain(once(0u16))
+        .collect::<Vec<u16>>();
+    let msg = OsStr::new(msg)
+        .encode_wide()
+        .chain(once(0u16))
+        .collect::<Vec<u16>>();
+    unsafe {
+        result = MessageBoxW(
+            mem::zeroed(),
+            msg.as_ptr(),
+            title.as_ptr(),
+            MB_ICONERROR | MB_SYSTEMMODAL,
+        );
+    }
+
+    result
+}
+
 fn fetch_grammars() -> Result<()> {
     let dir = Directory::grammars_directory()
         .ok_or_else(|| anyhow!("can't get grammars directory"))?;
diff --git a/lapce-app/src/lib.rs b/lapce-app/src/lib.rs
index bbf8b621..99e81946 100644
--- a/lapce-app/src/lib.rs
+++ b/lapce-app/src/lib.rs
@@ -42,3 +42,6 @@
 pub mod window;
 pub mod window_tab;
 pub mod workspace;
+
+#[cfg(windows)]
+extern crate windows_sys as windows;