# Stopping Win 7 from automatically restarting programs after they crash **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 9, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-win-7-from-automatically-restarting-programs-after-they-crash/670812 "2013-10-09T20:54:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-win-7-from-automatically-restarting-programs-after-they-crash/670812/1 "2013-10-09T20:54:04Z")
Sometimes I want crashed programs to stay closed until the next time I open them. Sometimes I don’t want the program to pop open a slew of windows, sometimes I don’t want my browser to slog through re-opening all its tabs, and sometimes I’m just a vindictive prick. Suffice as to say, when a program crashes I’m only given the choice to restart or check for a solution and restart—there’s no option to let the program stew in its own funk for a while and think about what it did. I tried Googling for the right setting, but the generic nature of the terms I’m using to search bring up a host of irrelevant sites. (Note that I can toggle the automatic reporting, but not the automatic restarting.) Is this an easy fix? A registry hack? Any way to add the non-restart option? ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-win-7-from-automatically-restarting-programs-after-they-crash/670812/2 "2013-10-10T08:51:13Z")
Ah, this is one that took me a while to figure out. Just close that window that’s giving you the “Restart or Check for (useless) Solution” without clicking on either of those two buttons. That’ll kill it dead. Stone cold dead. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-win-7-from-automatically-restarting-programs-after-they-crash/670812/3 "2013-10-10T08:55:55Z")
Missed the edit window. I assume this is the window you see when a program crashes, yes? [![](http://www.zhacks.com/images/crash-reporting.png) ](http://www.zhacks.com/images/crash-reporting.png) Click the X to close. DO NOT TOUCH THE BUTTONS! I repeat: BUTTON CLICK IS A BAD THING. HENRY WILL CRY. Also, you can disable the whole notion of checking for problems (because we know that it’s useless, right?) by changing a setting, as outlined here: > **[TechSpot : Tech Enthusiasts, Power Users, Gamers](https://www.techspot.com/)** > > Technology news, reviews, and analysis for power users, enthusiasts, IT professionals and PC gamers. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-win-7-from-automatically-restarting-programs-after-they-crash/670812/4 "2013-10-10T13:40:24Z")
> [@Dervorin](#): > > (because we know that it’s useless, right?) It’s not completely useless. Once I had it tell me that my crash was due to a video driver problem and that there was an update available that fixed it. I installed the latest video driver and it fixed it. So that was useful. So out of all of the crashes I have ever had it did help once. Only once. Ever. But it did happen. So it’s not useless, it’s just mostly useless. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2013, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stopping-win-7-from-automatically-restarting-programs-after-they-crash/670812/5 "2013-10-10T14:05:55Z")
> [@Dervorin](#): > > Click the X to close. DO NOT TOUCH THE BUTTONS! I repeat: BUTTON CLICK IS A BAD THING. HENRY WILL CRY. What? You’re breaking up! I can’t hear you… did you say cut the _blue_ wire? One of those in-your-face-the-whole-time solutions. :smack: Funny thing about it too, because it’s the first instinct/alt-F4 when a web pop-up or something tells me I’m in imminent danger unless I click OK. I too had a singular experience of MS finding a problem (I don’t mind the connection, I just don’t always want to restart). It was shocking to the point where I called everyone over to see. Unfortunately, no one was impressed. It was one of those ‘but guys, you have no idea how rare this is!’ moments.