Practicing the Black Art (12/03)
Elementary, My Dear Watson
by Vinny La Bash, vlabash@home.com
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.
I have no idea if Sherlock Holmes ever really said this to his assistant, but today Dr. Watson is more than a foil for the eminent literary detective. In our world, Dr. Watson is a software utility included with Microsoft Windows that helps detect, decode, and log errors that are encountered while windows or windows programs are running. You may not even know you have it on your system. It's installed by default, but does not show up anywhere as a menu item.
Run Dr. Watson in XP by clicking Start / Run and typing "drwtsn32" and clicking OK. The Dr. Watson for Windows dialog box will appear as illustrated. This dialog box allows you to configure the utility.
Note: If you type drwatson in the Run box, the program will start and show up as an icon in the notification area. You will be alerted if any problems are found, but you won't be able to perform any configurations.
Drwatson.exe is an older program error debugger that was included with earlier versions of Windows. Microsoft says that you should use Drwtsn32.exe instead of Drwatson.exe in Windows XP.
After the dialog box appears, you will notice multiple options.
Let's examine them, and configure the utility.
Log File Path and Crash Dump: The information obtained and logged by Dr. Watson is used by Microsoft technical support groups to diagnose program errors for computers running Windows XP. Whenever something happens that gets Dr. Watson's attention, it creates a text file called Drwtsn32.log. You can get this file to Microsoft by email or copy it to magnetic media and sending it by snail mail. You also have the option of creating a crash dump file, which is a binary file that a programmer can load into a debugger. The first two options on the dialog box show where the Log File and the Crash Dump file will be stored when Dr. Watson encounters a problem. The Browse buttons allow you to change the default location for these files. Change the location if you want a shorter path for the default storage place on your computer.
Wave File: You can play a sound or music if you like when an application error occurs. The file name must have a .wav extension and must conform to the Microsoft WAV file format. You can test the file with Media Player. The option will become active after you check the Wave Notification box. Use the Browse button to locate whatever WAV file you want. Number of Instructions and Number of Errors to Save Save: These options record a lot of technical information written in Geek. If terms like program counters, threads, and points of execution have no meaning for you, leave the defaults alone. Crash Dump Type Type: If you don't know what a Crash Dump is, don't mess with the default. A Crash Dump provides a record of what caused the problem, and any factors that may have contributed to the problem.
Dump Symbol Table: This is another option created by geeks for other geeks. Symbol tables are associated with program modules. Obviously Microsoft doesn't consider this option essential as it is left blank by default. Checking it will result in very large dump files.
Dump All Thread Contexts: Think of this as taking a snapshot of a crime scene. If you leave it blank, only the chief suspect will show up. If checked, Dr. Watson, will also record any smoking guns, accomplices, and witnesses along with their testimony. Leave it alone.
Visual Notification: If you want a message box appearing to tell you what you already know, (something went wrong), then check this box.
Wave Notification: This option is for multi-media freaks who want sound and graphics with everything. See Wave File above. Create Crash Dump File File: With this selection, you can tell Dr. Watson to create a binary crash dump file that can later be loaded into a debugger. If you select this option, you must also specify a file name for the crash dump file in the Crash Dump box.
Summary: Dr. Watson is a diagnostic utility designed to help
Microsoft programmers and developers fix flaws and improve products. It's really not for the average computer user who doesn't have a strong technical background.
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Copyright 2003. This article is from the December 2003 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
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