In order to make Windows stable, Microsoft comes with an error reporting tool which is enabled by default. Every time a program crashes, a window pops up asking you to send diagnostic information to Microsoft. For those lucky souls who have never come face to face with it, this is what it looks like:
But wait! Was this really a cool thing to do?
No, it wasn’t. You wasted your vote by clicking on “Don’t Send”. And you gave away the right to vote in future by disabling this feature. A vote that could have helped fix a bug.
You might be wondering if reporting an error has any effect on Microsoft. Because the same program keeps on crashing again and again, even when you reported about it the first time. This has led to a general perception of Microsoft’s error reporting tool as:
Same applies for third party software that you install on your computer. These software makers have the option to sign up to access the Windows Error Reporting data, using which they can find where their program is failing, and fix it in subsequent releases.
Thus when you send a diagnostic report to Microsoft, you are actually voting for a bug. More number of votes that a bug gets more is the chances of it getting fixed.
So next time when you get a thought of disabling the error report, think again. You might unknowingly contribute in making the Windows experience better for yourself and others by sending the error report.
Have you ever reported errors to Microsoft? Did you see any improvement after that? What are your chief reasons for not using the reporting tool? We’ll love to hear your views on this topic.
One Comment
I usually send in bug reports, unless I’m really short on time. To their credit, the Error Reporting system is much improved now in Windows 7, and does actually suggest some possible fixed for a problem straight away.