Windows Error Reporting: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:39, 4 August 2018

Revision as of 09:09, 11 November 2018

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[[File:Windows Error Reporting problem details.png|thumb|right|Windows Error Reporting displaying problem details from an issue with [[Windows Explorer]]]]

'''Windows Error Reporting''' ('''WER''') (codenamed Watson) is a [[crash reporter|crash reporting]] technology introduced by [[Microsoft]] with [[Windows&nbsp;XP]]<ref name="whatisit">[http://blogs.msdn.com/b/wer/archive/2008/12/26/what-are-wer-services.aspx What are WER Services?]</ref> and included in later Windows versions and [[Windows Mobile]] 5.0 and 6.0. Not to be confused with the [[Dr. Watson (debugger)|Dr. Watson]] debugging tool which left the memory dump on the user's local machine, Windows Error Reporting collects and offers to send post-error [[debug]] information (a [[Core dump|memory dump]]) using the Internet to the [[Microsoft]] or stops responding on a user's desktop. No data is sent without the user's consent.<ref>[http://blogs.msdn.com/b/wer/archive/2009/03/11/an-overview-of-wer-consent-settings-and-corresponding-ui-behavior.aspx An overview of WER consent settings and corresponding UI behavior]</ref> When a dump (or other error signature information) reaches the Microsoft server, it is analyzed and a solution is sent back to the user when one is available. Solutions are served using Windows Error Reporting Responses. Windows Error Reporting runs as a [[Windows service]] and can optionally be entirely disabled. If Windows Error Reporting itself crashes, then an error report that the original crashed process produced cannot be sent at all. Kinshuman is the original designer of Windows Error Reporting in Vista which is the same design and implementation that is present in current Windows versions.<ref>[http://m.cacm.acm.org/magazines/2011/7/109883-debugging-in-the-very-large/abstract Debugging in the (Very) Large: Ten Years of Implementation and Experience]</ref>

==History==