How in the Tech

Silence error reporting in Windows

By Adam Myers ⋅ January 7, 2010 ⋅ Tags: Annoyances, Windows

Windows Error Reporting was introduced in XP but it’s roots trace back to the Dr Watson days. When a program crashes or otherwise stops responding a memory dump is taken by Windows Error Reporting (WER) and you are given the option to ship the results off to Microsoft. The theory is, Microsoft will gather the information from all the reports, perform a deep analysis, and present a solution back to the troubled user – either immediately upon submitting if the problem has a known solution, or at a later day through the WER Services when a solution is uncovered. To the average user this sounds like a fantastic feature but in my experience the returned results are generally too ambiguous to be of much help. If you agree, you should know it’s pretty simple to disable the feature entirely.

To disable WER in Windows 7 search for report problems off the Start Menu. One of the results returned should read Choose how to report problems.

Now you may choose the option most appropriate.

For Windows Vista, the procedure is rather similar. Launch Control Panel from the Start Menu and switch to the Classic View. Look for the icon titled Problem Reports and Solutions. From the Tasks list on the left-hand menu select Change settings.