Hi Tensie,

Dr Watson is pretty well useless to the average computer user.
I causes major disruptions , freezing to the point where you would have to reboot to be able to use
your computer again. The report is only useful to people who have a very thorough understanding
of the operating system.
Unless you're a Microsoft customer under a maintenance contract, don't expect help from M$.
They will not provide assistance to OEM customers with problems like this.
So your recourse is to seek help from the computer manufacturer., whether it be Dell or HP etc.
Problem is, their personnel is rarely able to resolve problems at this level.

Even Windows Error reporting is close to the same condition. - 
My experience is that 90% of the time no reasonable solution is provided.
Either there is no solution listed or you'll get a multitude of options ,which may or may not apply.

Solution? Turn off both of these services (and save your nerves )
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
You can read about  disabling Dr Watson here at M$ - It gives a Registry solution.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188296   (but don't follow this yet -read on)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
You could also delete the Registry Key as suggested in this article.
http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/configuration/how-can-i-disable-dr-watson-.aspx
Quote:" Dr. Watson can be disabled using the registry editor: 
Start the registry editor (regedit.exe)
Goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug
Click on AeDebug and click Del

Alternativly just set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug\AUTO to 0

To re-enable Dr. Watson type drwtsn32 -i
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Simplest way is to use a .reg file to Enable or Disable Dr Watson (That way, if ever asked for the log
you can just re-enable it.
Excellent article here http://techdows.com/2009/03/how-to-fix-drwatson-postmortem-debugger.html
Direct link to the .reg file for disabling Dr Watson is here:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/5/1/751c3454-ffc4-418a-8320-51066f4ee4ce/DisableDrWatson.reg
Save - see below.
You can open this in NotePad and this is what it says:
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug]
"Auto"="0"
...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................
So if you want to have an Enable as well, just use the following:
...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug]
"Auto"="1"
..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Copy & paste the above and save as  EnableDrWatson.reg. (Notepad will want to save as .txt,
just change to .reg.)
Save both files ,the Disable- and the Enable one to a folder (in your Documents) 
called #Disable-Enable Dr Watson.  (# sign will put it at top of list)

So to disable Dr Watson, just double-click the DisableDrWatson.reg  file - it will ask if 
you want to merge this file in the Registry. Click  'yes".
From now on Dr Watson won't bother you .

To disable Error Reporting  - this article give a clear explanation how to do it.
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Disable-Error-Reporting-Windows-XP-Server-2003.html

Hope you'll find this info useful.

Peter E.



From: Tensie Palmer 
Sent: Wednesday, 05 May, 2010 1:24 AM
To: [log in to unmask] 
Subject: Re: [PCSOFT] Dr. Watson postmortem debugger


We have no idea about system crashes or other software...
How do we stop it from showing up all the time?
Do we need to reinstall windows?
Thanks in advance for replies.


Tensie



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