While it is easier to work with crash reports under Windows Vista / 7 thanks to improved handling, it is still lacking fundamental features that one would expect from a first party tool. The ability to look up errors in a “crash” database on the Internet looks good on paper, but falls short thanks to lack of entries in that database.

Nirsoft is not reinventing the wheel with its latest Windows application WinCrashReport. The biggest accomplishment of the portable program is that it unifies the error reporting on all supported versions of the Windows operating system. It is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microosft Windows operating system from Windows 2000 to the very latest Windows 7 (at the time of writing).

The program needs to be run when an application crashes on the system. Windows 7 and Vista users may need to run WinCrashReport with elevated privileges if the crashed application was run with administrative rights as well.

The program then displays the file name, exception code and address in its interface, as well as the complete error report in the lower half of it.

The information presented here are valuable to programmers and admins who need to resolve program crashes. Regular users on the other hand won’t necessarily be able to use the available crash information to fix the issue themselves. Regardless, they can use some of the information to research the crash on the Internet.

The program can be used to create a text or html report of the crash. That’s handy for keeping records of application crashes for instance, or for sending the report to an admin or coder. The interface displays plain text error reports by default, which can be switched to html reports with the F9 key (and back to text with F8).

Reports are saved with the Ctrl-S shortcut, or the File > Save this crash report menu.

WinCrashReport does not support 64-bit application crashes at this point in time. Future versions of the software will support 64-bit crashes as well.

Windows users can download WinCrashReport directly from the Nirsoft website.

Some users may want to know how this program differs from AppCrashView by the same developer. AppCrashView is only compatible with Vista and Windows 7. It furthermore pulls the information from system crash logs (wer files) that are created by Windows Error Reporting. This means that you may see multiple error listings in AppCrashView that may data back some time ago.

Crashed or frozen apps are especially problematic in situations where the computer system is left unattended. Examples would be to leave the computer on over night to finish a download, render a movie or compile a computer program.

A crash without safeguard in place usually means that a specific workload could not be completed.

Applications like Restart On Crash, or the previously reviewed Monitor And Restart Crashed Windows Processes, monitor specific programs that are running on the system.

They constantly check if a monitored application is running and responding properly, and react immediately if it is not.

The portable software Restart On Crash monitors applications that are added by the user. The four buttons on top of the interface are used to add and delete monitored applications, display the application log or open the settings of the program.

The add button opens a second program window. Here it is possible to add a running application or an executable from the computer’s hard drive.

Two different crash and hang checks are available. Restart On Crash assumes a program has crashed or hanged if the program does not respond to Windows messages. The second check needs to be activated, it basically assumes that the program has crashed if it is not running.

The after the crash configuration consists of two parameters. The first will kill the application’s process if it is still running, the second executes a command, which usually means restarting the application that has crashed or frozen. Restart On Crash will automatically fill in the application’s path after a process or program has been selected for monitoring.

restart on crash

All monitored applications are displayed in the main program interface. The checkmark in front indicates that they are monitored, removing the checkmark disables the monitoring for the time being.

monitor applications

Monitored applications that are closed by the user, freeze up, or crash are automatically restarted by the software. The kill switch if the process is still running will kill all instances of the program, which needs to be considered. This can be problematic if an application launches multiple program instances that are independent of each other, and only one of them crashes or hangs.

Restart On Crash is a helpful application monitoring tool that offers to restart programs that crash or hang. The download is available at the developer’s website

Some would say that this is the same principle that keyloggers use to record keys and they are basically right. Save my work saves every keystroke and everyone may access those if he knows where to look for them. While keyloggers try to disguise themselves the icon of this program is always accessible from the system tray.

I do however find it quite fascinating that Antivir did not object when I started save my work. The main feature is still the ability to save text automatically and copy / paste it when needed to avoid data loss.

Since WordPress (the blog software I’m using) introduced a auto save function I’m in no need of such a program anymore but it would have been handy before that. Another easier method would be to simply use CTRL + C to copy the text into the clipboard every now and then.

Save my work could be a security risk as well. It records all keystrokes which means that it also records usernames and passwords of sites that you visit. I would not recommend to start it with Windows, maybe only open it when you open your word processing program / email program and the like.

The second purpose of Crash Doctor is to prevent further damage to other files that are dependent on the crashed program. If the program tries to open an existing file for writing CrashDoctor intercepts this and copies the original file to a backup location. This prevents any further damage done by the misbehaving program.

Pretty useful if you ask me, information and download at intellectualheaven.com

Recover Crashing Programs with CrashDoctor

CrashDoctor is available as freeware directly from the publisher and it is a program that was developed to recover crashing programs and debug them accordingly. It is a JIT Windows debugger that is activated the moment a Windows program begins to crash. At that point, it fits into the program by attachment and makes a typically successful attempt to pull the crashing program back up, using detailed program analysis. CrashDoctor was developed by Pankaj Garg for IntellectualHeaven and is held under copyright.

When Windows programs get out of line and become unruly, files can get lost in the crash. One of the interesting features offered by CrashDoctor is its ability to monitor program execution. In the event that a program attempts to open an existing file for writing, CrashDoctor intercepts this data and makes a copy of the original file, which is saved to a backup location in the temporary folder from which you will be executing the CrashDoctor program. Salvage and recovery is easy at this point. This is much better than seeing “Program not Responding” and sending the error report to Microsoft. Then you have to go digging to try to recover lost files. With the advantage of a pre-determined file backup location, program crashes do not have to compromise your files.

When a program crashes on Windows systems, the option to debug the program is always presented, at least on Windows 7 and Vista operating systems. CrashDoctor will display a recovery screen listing the available debugging program options on your system so you can select the appropriate program to get the crashed program back into working order without extending the extra dollars to Microsoft to do it for you. Basically, this means that you can have the same option to debug the program as opposed to crash recovery. It is important to understand that if you choose this option and begin debugging the program; recovery is going to be impossible. This is something that most users are aware of already, but if you don’t even know what debugging actually is, it is best that you don’t mess around with the option.

You will find at the link provided that this is a binary download in .zip format and all files will need to be extracted to a temporary folder in order to effectively execute CrashDoctor. Just clicking the executable application file in the original binary file is not going to launch the interface, as all other files included in the .zip are essential components.

It is advised for early Windows operating systems that you first try the 32-bit UNICODE version and, failing this, try the 32-bit ANSI version. This will most likely work out for Windows 95, 98 and ME, but for Windows 2000, XP and 2003, be sure that you only use the 32-bit UNICODE version, as the other will fail.

As far as x86-64 Windows systems, use the AMD64 version and there will be no problems. Windows 7 and Vista seem to handle this best when it comes to 64-bit systems.