How to Turn on Automatic Error Reporting in Visual Studio 2008 Command-line Tools

Summary:

This article explains how to manually turn on automatic Watson error reporting for Visual Studio® 2008 command-line tools. We recommend that you review the data collection policy at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=3 1490 for information about the type of data included in Watson error reports. After you have modified the registry to turn on automatic error reporting, Visual Studio will allow you the option of sending error reports without being prompted.

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, we recommend that you make a backup copy of the registry. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

To turn on automatic error reporting, you must modify the registry. You can modify the registry in two ways:

• Create a .reg file that contains the necessary modifications. (This is the recommended approach.)

-or-

• Manually edit the registry by using regedit.exe.

To create a .reg file to turn on automatic error reporting in Visual Studio 2008

1. Start notepad.
2. Copy the following text to notepad:
   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\General]
   "UserCanAutoSendErrorReport"=dword:00000001
3. Save the file as “UserCanSendErrorReport.reg”.
4. Start Windows Explorer, navigate to the directory in which you saved the file, and double click it to add the information to the registry.

To manually turn on automatic error reporting by using regedit.exe

1. From the Start menu, click Run.
2. In the Open text box, type regedit and then click OK.
3. In the left pane, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\General.
   If the General key does not exist, then you must create it. On the Edit menu, point to New, click Key, and then type "General".
4. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
5. Type UserCanAutoSendErrorReport and then press ENTER.
6. Double-click the new entry that you created in step 5.
7. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, type 1 and then click OK.
8. On the File menu, click Exit.

Notes

This article is intended for advanced users, administrators, and IT Professionals.

On the Microsoft Windows Vista® operating system, you must have administrator privileges on the local computer in order to access the registry in any way.

On Windows Vista, the error reporting settings that you make for Visual Studio do not override the settings made through Windows Error Reporting (WER). WER settings always take precedence over Visual Studio error reporting settings. For more information on WER, see Windows Error Reporting: Getting Started.