BlueScreenView

BlueScreenView

Blue Screen of Death: the very name chills the hearts of Windows users who have experienced it. There’s no feeling quite like seeing your work vanish and be replaced by a BSOD, which is Windows’ way of telling you it has just crashed, taking whatever you had open with it. NirSoft’s BlueScreenView is a kind of coroner’s report on your system. It scans the minidump files created when your system crashes and displays a BSOD, collecting them all in a single list view displaying all kinds of information you can use to debug whatever it is that’s crashing your computer in the first place. (And if you knew that, you wouldn’t need BlueScreenView, would you?) Like other NirSoft tools, BlueScreenView is freeware.

BlueScreenView automatically scans your system’s minidump files as soon as you start it, though you can refresh the program while it’s running. BlueScreenView’s user interface is divided horizontally into two list views: an upper window displaying Dump Files and a lower pane for displaying each file’s contents. We could rearrange the column headings by dragging them and add or remove headings with the Choose Columns tool on the View menu. We could also add grid lines to the view, mark odd and even rows, generate HTML reports, and save data. We could open a properties sheet for individual entries or right-click to access a more extensive menu of choices, including copy and delete options. The Options menu includes a Lower Pane Mode menu that let us specify what data is shown in the bottom window, including raw data DumpChk Output, All Drivers, and other options.

Better still (or worse, depending on how you feel about it), BlueScreenView also displays a simulated Blue Screen Of Death that closely resembles the actual Windows BSOD in the lower pane. The program’s main view displays the Bug Check Code and four parameters as well as other data that makes it easy to track down the offending driver or module. BlueScreenView clearly isn’t for beginners, but coders and power users will appreciate the way it collects and presents crash data in one easy-to-use tool.