Error Reporting in Windows

[Chief_Pedant]

@jali

I use Windows and generally when I get that “shutdown message”, a box asks if I want to report the problem. I usually report it, since it’s simple to click “yes”.

Is there anyone watching the error trends (back at Microsoft) to eliminate the problem for future software programs, or is the button simply a placebo?

I opened IE6 on my work laptop this AM and it crashed repeatedly (haven’t used it much over the holidays). Sent the error report; was directed to a MS download site to download WindowsXP-KB946627-x86-ENU.exe which fixed the problem.

Apparently a security fix had broken IE…yada yada yada

So yeah; sometimes it’s worth it.

[PuddingCat]

For factual information relating to the OP (and without all the I-hate-Microsoft snarky rubbish) see Raymond Chen’s blog. He is a key Microsoft employee.

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2005/08/10/449865.aspx

I’ve also encountered Premier Field Engineering Microsofties who have explained that the data is collated and used. It’s used to determine adverse impacts from patches, priorities for hotfixes, bugs in system libraries and a whole host of other things.

For example, if FireFox is crashing it still has value to Microsoft - perhaps the fault is in their runtime. They also spend a lot of time ensuring back-compat. If a very popular app is crashing lots, they’ll probably design and deploy a shim. Again, see the blog above for more “horses-mouth” details.

tim