How to disable or enable Dr. Watson for Windows

This article describes how to disable and re-enable the Dr. Watson program for Windows.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Note Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.

To have us fix this problem for you, go to the "Fix it for me" section. If you prefer to fix this problem yourself, go to the "Let me fix it myself" section.

Fix it for me

To fix this problem automatically, click the Fix it button or link. Click Run in the File Download dialog box, and then follow the steps in the Fix it wizard.



Notes

• This wizard may be in English only. However, the automatic fix also works for other language versions of Windows.
• If you are not on the computer that has the problem, save the Fix it solution to a flash drive or a CD and then run it on the computer that has the problem.

Then, go to the "Did this fix the problem?" section.

Let me fix it myself

To disable Dr. Watson

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit.exe in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following registry key:  
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug
   NOTE: Steps three and four are optional, However, they are necessary if you want to restore the default use of Dr. Watson. 
3. Click the AeDebug key, and then click Export Registry File on the Registry menu.
4. Type a name and location for the saved registry file, and then click  Save.
5. Delete the AeDebug key.

Registry entries for debugger programs are located in the AeDebug key in Windows. The Dr. Watson program is installed by default in Windows, and is configured to run when an application error occurs (with a data value of 1 for the Auto value). The default values are as follows:

To enable Dr. Watson

1. At a command prompt, type the following line, and then press ENTER:
   
   drwtsn32 -i
2. Double-click the .reg file that you created in steps three and four that were discussed earlier.

Did this fix the problem?

• Check whether the problem is fixed. If the problem is fixed, you are finished with this section. If the problem is not fixed, you can contact support (http://support.microsoft.com/contactus) .
• We would appreciate your feedback. To provide feedback or to report any issues with this solution, please leave a comment on the "Fix it for me (http://blogs.technet.com/fixit4me/) " blog or send us an email (mailto:fixit4me@microsoft.com?Subject=KB) .