Windows Error Reporting Setup Utility
WERSetup.exe
v.1.0.1
Copyright (c) 2017 by www.dennisbabkin.com. All rights reserved.
(Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10/11)

LAST MODIFIED: 5/8/2023


DESCRIPTION:
================

"Windows Error Reporting" (or WER) is a feature that was introduced in Windows Vista SP1 that allows 
to collect crash reports if a program crashes. Such reports greatly facilitate debugging of the issue 
that caused the crash. For more information on WER check this link:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb513613(v=vs.85).aspx

By default WER is disabled.

This GUI utility simplifies the process of configuring WER to collect crash reports (also known as 
crash dumps, or minidumps) for crashing programs. The utility simply provides a graphic user 
interface to set up the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps

This utility can be helpful for developers of a crashing application. For instance, a developer can 
instruct the end-users experiencing crashes in their application to download and run this tool to 
configure Windows to collect crash dumps. After that the end-users can simply upload to the 
developers of the crashing application the minidump (.dmp) files that will be generated by Windows 
after each crash. Information provided in crash dump files can be indispensable for developers to 
debug the issue.

Note again, that this utility does not collect crash dumps itself. It simply helps end-users to 
set up WER for crash dump collection.


To configure WER to collect crash dumps, run this utility (WERSetup.exe file) as administrator on the 
computer that the program in question is crashing on. The utility will give an option to configure 
global settings, as well as settings specific to programs.

When a "native" Windows application crashes, Windows will first read global WER settings. It will then 
attempt to find a matching program specific settings based on the process name of the crashed program. 
If a program specific setting is found, it will override the global setting.

Note that these settings do not apply to .NET or other applications that provide their own crash 
reporting facilities.


The following options are available:

For additional information check:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb787181%28v=vs.85%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396


 - "Dump files folder"   = [DumpFolder] The path where crash dump files are to be stored. You can specify 
                           environment variables in this path. Example: "%SystemDrive%\CrashDumps". 
                           It is also important to make this folder accessible for reading and writing to 
                           all users for the moment of the crash dump collection. This will ensure that any 
                           crashing process will be able to write its crash report.

                           Default: If this option is left blank, the following path will be used:
                                    "%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps"

 - "Set up ACL on dump folder for `Everyone` to have read-write access"   = just as this checkbox suggests, 
                           this will set up Access Control List on the dump folder specified above to have 
                           read-write access for EVERYONE. This is important so that a crashing process is 
                           capable of writing into the specified folder.

 - "Crash dump type"     = [DumpType] Specifies how much data to collect in the dump file. 
                           - "Mini dump" will be shorter in size but will contain less debugging information 
                             and thus will be less helpful for developers.
                           - "Full dump" will generate a larger file but will have more debugging information.

                           It is strongly recommended that you set this option to generate full dump files.

                           SECURITY NOTE TO END-USERS: Since crash dump files contain the snapshot of memory 
                           of the crashed program, there is NO guarantee that generated dump file will not 
                           contain your private or sensitive information. Such information may be a part of 
                           the dump file if crash happened when the application was working with sensitive data. 
                           Exercise security precautions when sending out crash dump files!

                           Default: If this option is left blank, the following path will be used: "Mini dump"

 - "Maximum number of files"  = [DumpCount] Specifies the maximum number of dump files to hold in the crash 
                                folder. When the maximum value is exceeded, the oldest dump file in the folder 
                                will be replaced with the new dump file.

                                Default: If this option is left blank, "10" will be used.


To clear out all WER settings, and thus disable all crash dump collection, go to Edit -> Clear Global Settings.
Then highlight all entries in the "Settings Specific To Programs" list, right-click them, and select
"Delete Programs." Confirm the removal and save changes. This will disable WER on that system.


This tool uses "suggested settings" to let you quickly fill out dump file collection settings described above. 
This option fills out all controls in the program's UI at once with a set of predefined settings. To activate 
it go to Edit -> "Set Suggested Settings" in the main menu. 
To modify suggested settings themselves, change the following registry key for the Windows user account that 
runs WERSetup.exe tool:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\www.dennisbabkin.com\WERSetup\Settings\Suggested


Click SAVE at the bottom of the window to apply changes. Note that this tool has to run as administrator for
users to be able to save changes. If this tool is started without administrative privileges, it will function
in a read-only mode.






To download your copy go to:
https://www.dennisbabkin.com/WERSetup

For bug reports go to:
https://www.dennisbabkin.com/sfb/?what=bug&name=WERSetup


Thank you!











