Dr. Watson is a program error debugger that detects and diagnoses program errors
and creates User.dmp and DrWtsn32.log files to contain the diagnostic data. In Windows
NT these files are stored in the %systemroot% folder.
In Windows 2000, these files are stored in the %systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\All
Users\Documents\DrWatson folder. For Windows XP, these files are stored
in the %systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\All
Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson folder. The DrWtsn32.log file
is appended each time a program error occurs; the User.dmp file is overwritten
each time.
To turn off the Dr Watson debugger, apply the following Windows NT / Windows
2000 / Windows XP registry hack:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug
Name: Auto
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0 disable
Value: 1 enable
To re-enable Dr Watson, you can change Auto back to 1 or from the command
line type drwtsn -i.
To change the folder for log files, apply the following Windows NT / Windows
2000 / Windows XP registry hack:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DrWatson
Name: LogFilePath
Type: REG_SZ
This is the registry key containing most
of the values for Dr Watson including AppendToLogFile,
CrashDumpFile (change from default name user.dmp), CreateCrashDump, MaximumCrashes, SoundNotification,
VisualNotification, and Wavefile.
The AppendToLogFile value controls whether Dr. Watson
creates a new log file or appends data to the old log file for each application
error that occurs:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DrWatson
Name: AppendToLogFile
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0 new
Value: 1 append
The CrashDumpFile value controls the path and filename
to use when creating a crash dump file :
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DrWatson
Name: CrashDumpFile
Type: REG_EXPAND_SZ
The CreateCrashDump value controls whether Dr. Watson
creates a crash dump file after an application crash has occured :
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DrWatson
Name: CreateCrashDump
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0 disable
Value: 1 enable
The DumpAllThreads value controls whether Dr. Watson
should dump the contents of all threads during an application error :
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DrWatson
Name: DumpAllThreads
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0 disable
Value: 1 enable
The DumpSymbols value controls whether Dr. Watson should
dump the contents of the symbol tables during an application error :
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DrWatson
Name: DumpSymbols
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0 disable
Value: 1 enable
The SoundNotification value controls whether Dr. Watson
plays a wav file when an application error occurs :
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DrWatson
Name: SoundNotification
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0 disable
Value: 1 enable
The WaveFile value specifies the path and filename of
the wave file to be played during an application error :
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DrWatson
Name: SoundNotification
Type: REG_EXPAND_SZ
The VisualNotification value controls whether Dr. Watson
displays a popup message box when it encounters an application error :
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DrWatson
Name: VisualNotification
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0 disable
Value: 1 enable
There are various debugger utilities besides Dr Watson. Lotus Notes replaces
Dr Watson with its debugger. To switch back to Dr Watson, should another
debugger be enabled, apply the following Windows NT / Windows 2000 registry
hack:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug
Name: Debugger
Type: REG_SZ
Value: drwtsn32
-p %ld -e %ld -g
Microsoft kb article:
- How to Delete Corrupt Event Viewer Log Files
- How to Install Symbols for Dr. Watson Error Debugging
- Dr. Watson Fails to Appear Because of Long File Names in Path
- Dr. Watson Does Not Run with Certain Extensible Counters
- Dr. Watson Causing Fault in USER32
- Random Dr. Watson Errors in Services.exe
- Error 87 and Dr. Watson
- Interpreting DrWtsn32.log File to Identify Program Crash Data
- Dr. Watson Log File May Not Contain Task List
- Specifying the Debugger for Unhandled User Mode Exceptions
- Spoolss.exe Generates Dr.Watson Log