NOTE: Microsoft replaced Dr Watson with the Problem Reports And Solutions tool when it released Windows Vista. To access this tool, click Start, Control Panel and then click System And Maintenance. Finally, click Problem Reports And Solutions.

To err may be human, but to err and trash your PowerPoint presentation is distinctly PC. Sometimes the errors are random, other times they're more predictable, but they're always annoying. To make matters worse, the most annoying errors always seem to have the most obfuscated error messages. Windows does come with a number of small tools to help you track and, in some cases, solve application errors.

Perhaps the best known tool is Dr. Watson. If you have Windows, chances are you have Dr. Watson installed. The good doctor, however, has gone through a number of changes over the years and works differently depending on which version of Windows you're using. A handful of additional tools can provide extra help in solving errors. Windows XP, for instance, lets you submit error reports to Microsoft each time an error occurs. Other tools help catch errors that Dr. Watson may miss. We'll take a look at some error debugging tools and show you how you can use these tools to help pinpoint problems.

House Calls.

As we mentioned above, Dr. Watson is perhaps the most well-known debugging application for Windows. Dr. Watson sits in the background waiting for errors to occur. When Dr. Watson detects an error, it takes a snapshot of everything that's going on in the system and saves the data to a log file. You may be able to use some of the information in the log to pinpoint where errors are occurring, but you'll find the log files are most helpful when submitted to technical support teams.

In newer versions of Windows, Dr. Watson is constantly running. Windows 2000/XP users do not need to start Dr. Watson manually and will not see any indication that Dr. Watson is running.

On older systems, users will need to start Dr. Watson before it can log any errors. In Windows 98/Me, click Run in the Start Menu and type drwatson. You'll see an icon in the System Tray when Dr. Watson is running.

Win98/Me users who are experiencing frequent but random errors may want to make a shortcut to Dr. Watson and place it in the Start-up program group in the Start menu. This will load Dr. Watson each time the system boots. To create a shortcut, right-click the Desktop, select New from the pop-up menu, and click Shortcut. Type drwatson in the text field and click Next. Provide a name for the shortcut (Dr. Watson works fine, but it can be anything you want) and click Finish. Right-click the newly created shortcut and select Copy. Right-click the Start Menu and select Explore. Double-click Programs and Start-up and then select Paste from the Edit menu.

Options. In Win98/Me, right-click the Dr. Watson icon in the System Tray and select Options. You can specify the number of log entries to save and set the directory where Dr. Watson will store its logs along with a handful of other options.

There are more options available to Win2000/XP users. To open the configuration window, click Run in the Start Menu and type drwtsn32. Once again, you can set the number of log entries to save and specify the directory where Dr. Watson will save its log files. These versions can also create Crash Dump files that developers or support staff can load into other debuggers.

Win2000/XP users will also notice recent Dr. Watson entries listed at the bottom of the window. Highlight an error and click View to view the details.

Log Files.

The location where Dr. Watson saves log files by default depends on the version you're using. Open the configuration window using the method described above to locate the directory where Dr. Watson saves its log file. Older versions on Win98/Me systems use a .WLF file extension while newer versions running Win2000/XP use a .LOG extension.

In Win95/98, double-click the Dr. Watson icon and then click Open Log File in the File menu. Users with Win2000/XP can open recent logs from the configuration menu as described above. If you've cleared out entries in the configuration window, you can still open the Drwtsn32.log file in a text editor such as Wordpad (log files may be too large to open in Notepad).

Logs can be very long, and most of the information is of no use to you unless you're a programmer. Nonetheless, in some instances you might be able to find some useful information buried in a Dr. Watson log.

Each entry starts listing the date, time, and name of the application that crashed. Names provided are file names rather than generic program names (for instance, Wmplayer.exe instead of Windows Media Player). You'll also find a list of modules and other applications running at the time of the crash and a generic program error code. You can use this information to search the Web for other users who may have had similar problems with a specific application.

You can find the exact point where the problem occurred. You'll find multiple headers that read "State Dump For Thread Id xxxxx" (where xxxxx changes). You may see the word Fault in front of one or more of indented lines under these headers. Take a closer look at the beginning of any segment that contains a Fault line, and you should see a line beginning with Function. In some instances, you may be able to find some information by researching the function name (also called a symbol).

If the application is a Microsoft application, try searching Microsoft's online Knowledge Base (support.microsoft.com). It may be useful to include the application name, error code, and symbol (if any). If the error is from another application, search the support documents from the software's publisher. Other handy utilities include Google (www.google.com) and Google Groups (groups.google.com).

In some instances, you may be able to track down a software conflict between two or more applications and find a simple workaround. Though in most cases, you probably will have to contact the software's tech support department. Submitting Dr. Watson logs may prove helpful. Even if the developer is unable to fix the problem in a timely manner, the company may be able to fix the problem in future revisions.

Error Reporting.

In WinXP, Windows offers to report any errors directly to Microsoft any time an error occurs. This may or may not be helpful depending on the situation. Regardless, due to privacy concerns, error reports are completely anonymous, and only a handful of Microsoft developers have access to these error reports. Don't expect Microsoft to get back to you concerning an error report. Microsoft developers, however, may notice trends in submitted reports over time. They can use this information in the future to fix common errors.

Remember, the information you submit in these reports is confidential. If you do contact Microsoft's tech support department directly, they will not have access to the report you submitted. Dr. Watson logs, therefore, are still useful when contacting Microsoft's tech support department even if you've filed an automatic error report.

Safety Net.

In older versions of Windows, unexpected errors can slip through if Dr. Watson isn't running. Older versions of Windows still catch and record errors in a file called Fault.txt located in the C:\Windows directory.

Entries in this file are small, especially compared to the wealth of data provided by Dr. Watson. Nonetheless, they do provide some basic information you might find helpful. You'll find the name of the application that caused the crash and the name of the module that crashed along with a date and time stamp. A few other technical details are provided, but they'll mostly be of use to technical personnel. Addition reports are appended to the end of the file, so you'll find the most recent errors listed at the bottom of the file.

Limitations.

Dr. Watson and other error reporting utilities do have somewhat limited use. They will not, for instance, help with major errors involving the OS itself. (We'll refrain from making the obvious WinMe joke here). These applications are best used to catch errors that occur when specific applications crash. In instances where the entire OS suddenly locks up, they may be of little use.

by Chad Denton