How to configure system failures and recovery selections

You can use the System Control Panel to configure system failure and recovery options. IT professionals can also modify system failure and recovery settings on local or remote computers by modifying the values in the following registry keys:

Hkey_local_machine/system/currentcontrolset/control/crashcontrol

In the following steps, a registry value is provided for each option, and an example command line is provided to modify the options on the local computer by using the command-line utility (Wmic.exe) to access Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). See the additional information provided in this article for the IT Pros section. To configure system failure and recovery options, follow these steps:

Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.

Click the Advanced tab, and then under Startup and recovery, click Settings (or Startup and recovery).

Under System failure, click to select the check boxes for the actions that you want Windows to perform when a system error occurs:

The write event to system Log option specifies that event information is logged in the system log. By default, this option is turned on. You cannot turn off this feature on computers running Windows SQL Server or the Windows Server 2003 series operating system. Windows always writes event information to the system log. To turn off this option by modifying the registry on a Windows XP or Windows Professional computer, set the LogEvent DWORD value to 0. For example, type the following information at a command prompt, and then press Enter:

wmic recoveros set writetosystemlog = False

If administrative alerts are configured, the Send Administrative alerts option specifies that the administrator is notified when an error occurs in the system. By default, this option is turned on. To turn off this option by modifying the registry, set the Sendalert DWORD value to 0. For example, type the following information at a command prompt, and then press Enter:

wmic recoveros set SendAdminAlert = False

For additional information about how to set up alerts, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

310490 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310490/) How to set up administrative alerts in Windows XP

The automatic restart option specifies that Windows automatically restarts your computer. By default, this option is enabled. To turn off this option by modifying the registry, set the AutoReboot DWORD value to 0. For example, type the following information at a command prompt, and then press Enter:

wmic recoveros Set autoreboot = False

Under Write debug information, select the type of information that you want Windows to record in the memory dump file when the computer stops unexpectedly:

(none) option does not record any information in the memory dump file. To specify that you do not want Windows to record information in a memory dump file by modifying the registry, set the CrashDumpEnabled DWORD value to 0. For example, type the following information at a command prompt, and then press Enter:

wmic recoveros set DebugInfoType = 0

The small memory Dump option records a minimum amount of information to help determine the problem. This option requires a paging file of at least 2 MB on the computer's boot volume and specifies that Windows creates a new file every time the system stops unexpectedly. The history of these files is stored in the folders listed under the Small Dump directory (%systemroot%/minidump). In Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, small memory dump files are used for Windows Error reporting. To specify that you want to use small memory dump files by modifying the registry, set the CrashDumpEnabled DWORD value to 3. For example, type the following information at a command prompt, and then press Enter:

wmic recoveros set DebugInfoType = 3

To specify that you want to use the D:/minidump folder as the small dump directory by modifying the registry, set the MinidumpDir extensible string value to D:/minidump. For example, type the following information at a command prompt, and then press Enter:

wmic recoveros Set minidumpdirectory = 3

The core memory dump option records only core memory. This option stores more information than a small memory dump file, but it takes less time to complete a dump than a full memory dump file. This file is stored in the location specified in the Dump file box (default is%systemroot%/memory.dmp), and if the Overwrite any existing Files check box is selected, all previous core or full memory dump files will be overwritten. If this option is set, a paging file that is large enough must be on the boot volume. The size required depends on the amount of RAM on your computer (the maximum amount of free space required for a core memory dump on a 32-bit system is 2 GB MB; on 64-bit systems, however, the maximum amount of free space required for a core memory dump is the size of RAM plus 128 MB. The following table contains some guidelines about the size of the paging file: Put the table up and expand the table RAM size paging file cannot be less than

256 1.5 times times the size of the mb–1,373 MB RAM

1,374 MB or greater 32-bit system: 2 GB MB

64-bit system: RAM size plus 128 MB

To specify that you want to use core memory dump files by modifying the registry, set the CrashDumpEnabled DWORD value to 2. For example, type the following information at a command prompt, and then press Enter:

wmic recoveros set DebugInfoType = 2

To specify that you want to use the D:/dump/mem.dmp file as a memory dump file by modifying the registry, set the DumpFile extensible string value to D:/DUMP/MEM.DMP. For example, type the following information at a command prompt, and then press Enter:

wmic recoveros set DebugFilePath = D:/dump/mem.dmp

To specify that you do not want to overwrite any previous core or full memory dump files by modifying the registry, set the Overwrite DWORD value to 0. For example, type the following information at a command prompt, and then press Enter:

wmic recoveros set OverwriteExistingDebugFile = 0

The full memory Dump option records the contents of the system's memory when the computer stops unexpectedly. This option is not available on computers with 2 GB or more of RAM. For additional information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

274598 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/274598/) Full memory dumps are not available on computers with 2 GB or more of RAM

If you select this option, you must have a paging file on the boot volume that is large enough to hold all the physical RAM plus 1 MB of capacity. The file is stored in the location specified in the Dump file box (default is%systemroot%/memory.dmp).

The full memory dump file requires additional space because Windows writes a header in addition to dumping the memory content. The header contains a crash dump signature and specifies the values of some core variables. The header information does not require an entire MB of space, but Windows determines the paging file size in MB increments.

To specify that you want to use a full memory dump file by modifying the registry, set the CrashDumpEnabled DWORD value to 1. For example, type the following information at a command prompt, and then press Enter:

wmic recoveros set DebugInfoType = 1

To specify that you want to use the D:/dump/mem.dmp file as a memory dump file by modifying the registry, set the DumpFile extensible string value to D:/DUMP/MEM.DMP. For example, type the following information at a command prompt, and then press Enter:

wmic recoveros set DebugFilePath = D:/dump/mem.dmp

To specify that you do not want to overwrite any previous core or full memory dump files by modifying the registry, set the Overwrite DWORD value to 0. For example, type the following information at a command prompt, and then press Enter:

wmic recoveros Set OverwriteExistingDebugFile = 0.

Note: If you consult Microsoft product Support services for a Stop error, they may ask you to provide a memory dump file that is generated by the Write debug Information option. For additional information about these Windows memory dump file options, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

254649 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/254649/) Windows Memory Dump Options Overview

Additional Information for IT Pros

The example command in the previous step uses Wmic.exe to configure system failure and recovery options in the Windows registry. Wmic.exe is included in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. It is not included in Windows 2000, but you can run Wmic.exe on Windows xp-based or Windows Server 2003-based computers to set up some system failure and recovery settings on a Windows 2000-based remote computer. The DebugInfoType property is not supported on Windows 2000-based computers. For additional information about the Wmic.exe utility, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

290216 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290216/) Windows Management Instrumentation Command line utility description

To view system failure and recovery settings for the local computer, type wmic recoveros at the command prompt, and then press Enter. To view system failure and recovery settings for a remote computer on a local area network, type Wmic/node: "Computer name" Recoveros at the command prompt, and then press Enter. Note that in order to successfully use these Wmic.exe command-line examples, you must be logged on using a user account that has administrative privileges on this computer. If you are not logged on with a user account that has administrative rights on this computer, use the/user: username and/password: password switch.

You can also use Registry Editor or other utilities to edit these registry values on Windows XP, Windows 2000, or Windows 2003-based computers.