Dr. Watson not enabled

[This topic is intended to address a specific issue called out by the Exchange Server Analyzer Tool. You should apply it only to systems that have had the Exchange Server Analyzer Tool run against them and are experiencing that specific issue. The Exchange Server Analyzer Tool, available as a free download, remotely collects configuration data from each server in the topology and automatically analyzes the data. The resulting report details important configuration issues, potential problems, and nondefault product settings. By following these recommendations, you can achieve better performance, scalability, reliability, and uptime. For more information about the tool or to download the latest versions, see "Microsoft Exchange Analyzers" at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=34707.]  

Topic Last Modified: 2005-11-18

The Microsoft® Exchange Server Analyzer Tool reads the value for the following registry key to determine whether Dr. Watson is configured as the default application debugger in the Microsoft Windows® operating system:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug\Debugger

If the Exchange Server Analyzer finds that the value for Debugger does not start with drwtsn32, a non-default configuration message is displayed.

This message indicates that Dr. Watson is not enabled. Starting with Windows NT®, an application-mode debugger referred to as Dr. Watson has been included with Windows. When an application crashes, the fault can be trapped by Dr. Watson, which logs a variety of information, such as platform information, a list of running processes, the identification of the faulting process, a memory dump of the faulting process, one or more call stacks, and a pointer to the fault itself. Most of the information gathered is low-level debugging information that is intended for the developer of the faulting process.

The recommended best practice is to run Windows with an application-mode debugger enabled. If Dr. Watson is not enabled and you are not using an alternative application debugger, it is recommended that you enable Dr. Watson using the following procedure.

To enable Dr. Watson

  1. Open a Command Prompt window.

  2. At the command prompt, type drwtsn32 -i.

For more information about enabling and disabling Dr. Watson, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 188296, "How to Disable Dr. Watson for Windows" (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=3052&kbid=188296).