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Tool for retrieving logged errors which might have led to the blue screen of death displaying

Tool for retrieving logged errors which might have led to the blue screen of death displaying

Vote: (18 votes)

Program license: Free

Developer: NirSoft

Version: 1.55

Works under: Windows

Vote:

Program license

(18 votes)

Free

Developer

Version

NirSoft

1.55

Works under:

Windows

Pros

  • BSoD analyzer
  • Portable

Cons

  • No documentation

BlueScreenView is a tool for analyzing the minidump files creating in response to blue screens.

Every Windows users will eventually encounter the Blue Screen of Death—which is abbreviated BSoD and often just referred to as a blue screen. A blue screen is a stop error, which is displayed as an error screen when Windows encounters an error from which it cannot recover or due to which it cannot continue operating safely. This is also known as a fatal system error as well as a system crash.

There are many different reasons for why a blue screen can occur, and determining that cause is not always as simple as users would prefer. In many cases, the BSoD will flash too quickly to read since Windows reboot, and you need to go into the BIOS in order to disable that behavior.

No matter how long a blue screen is visible, Windows will automatically create a file known as a minidump. The minidump is a hex file that includes the details of the crash and can often help a user determine the cause of a crash or at least point them in the right direction.

BlueScreenView is a tool that lets you open those minidump files in an organized and highly readable manner. Be mindful that Windows stores minidump files and will only begin deleting them when it runs out of allocated space. Therefore, unless you have deleted them manually, you will have access to all of the minidump files that have been created at least recently. This means that you are not limited to using BlueScreenView just after the BSoD has occurred.

BlueScreenView offers two adjustable panes. The top pane provides a data grid, which lists dump files and organizes their values into categories like Crash Time, Bug Check String, Bug Check Code, Parameter 1 and so forth. The bottom pane provides two views. The first view is a data grid that lists all of the relevant EXE, SYS, DLL and so forth files and enumerates parameters such as From Address, To Address, Size and Time String.

The second view of the bottom pane is a BSoD visualizer. This view will actually rebuild the error screen more or less using the data provided in the dump. This is very handy because you can allow your computer to reboot automatically from a BSoD but still have access to a visual representation of the screen.

Note that BlueScreenView is portable. This means that it does not require installation and you can store it on a USB flash drive so that it is available to you wherever you are. If we have a gripe it is that there is little to no documentation. Some help is provided, but is basic, and if you want to known what Bug Check Code means, for instance, you will need to look it up online.

Pros

  • BSoD analyzer
  • Portable

Cons

  • No documentation