diff --git a/include/fc/exception/exception.hpp b/include/fc/exception/exception.hpp
index 894f575..4b1a12a 100644
--- a/include/fc/exception/exception.hpp
+++ b/include/fc/exception/exception.hpp
@@ -297,10 +297,12 @@ namespace fc
    do { throw EXCEPTION_TYPE( FC_LOG_MESSAGE( error, "", FC_FORMAT_ARG_PARAMS(__VA_ARGS__) ) ); } while(false);
 
 //#define FC_THROW( FORMAT, ... ) 
-
+// FC_INDIRECT_EXPAND workas around a bug in Visual C++ variadic macro processing that prevents it
+// from separating __VA_ARGS__ into separate tokens
+#define FC_INDIRECT_EXPAND(MACRO, ARGS) MACRO ARGS
 #define FC_THROW(  ... ) \
    do { \
-   throw fc::exception( FC_LOG_MESSAGE( error, __VA_ARGS__ ) );  \
+   throw fc::exception( FC_INDIRECT_EXPAND(FC_LOG_MESSAGE, ( error, __VA_ARGS__ )) );  \
    } while(0)
 
 #define FC_EXCEPTION( EXCEPTION_TYPE, FORMAT, ... ) \
diff --git a/include/fc/log/logger.hpp b/include/fc/log/logger.hpp
index 221e709..a885cfd 100644
--- a/include/fc/log/logger.hpp
+++ b/include/fc/log/logger.hpp
@@ -131,8 +131,10 @@ namespace fc
 #define FC_FORMAT( SEQ )\
     BOOST_PP_SEQ_FOR_EACH( FC_FORMAT_ARG, v, SEQ ) 
 
-#define FC_FORMAT_ARG_PARAMS( SEQ )\
-    BOOST_PP_SEQ_FOR_EACH( FC_FORMAT_ARGS, v, SEQ ) 
+// takes a ... instead of a SEQ arg because it can be called with an empty SEQ 
+// from FC_CAPTURE_AND_THROW()
+#define FC_FORMAT_ARG_PARAMS( ... )\
+    BOOST_PP_SEQ_FOR_EACH( FC_FORMAT_ARGS, v, __VA_ARGS__ ) 
 
 #define idump( SEQ ) \
     ilog( FC_FORMAT(SEQ), FC_FORMAT_ARG_PARAMS(SEQ) )