Comment by Groxx | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Groxx | Hacker News Reader

>When the hacker's system crashes in Windows, as with all typical Windows crashes, Heckman said the user would be prompted to send the error details — including the malicious code — to Microsoft. The funny thing is that many say yes, according to Heckman.

That's funny. I distinctly remember noticing how those error details frequently "complete" instantly, so I've performed an experiment a number of times:

1) Get the report-crash window to pop up. 2) yank your Ethernet cord / power off your wireless. 3) submit report. 4) "success!"

The only times it's ever sent anything has been when some Microsoft core-product crashed on me, and then you get a progress bar and nearly always a link to info on a (likely) related error. And it catches less than 1/2 of the ones I've generated.

Windows caches error reports when you're offline and uploads them later. I've had error reporting give me links to third-part patches for products with no relation to Microsoft based on error reporting. But feel free to continue with your misinformed ranting.

I quite like the error reporting links. Massively more helpful than the "success" that most reporting mechanisms give you.

As to caching: to a certain degree, I doubt that, actually. When a Windows component has crashed, the same ones that I mention go through the whole process, it always informs me that I'm offline if I disconnect from the internet. For non-Windows ones, it always completes instantly, sends me no link, doesn't realize I've disconnected, and always says "success".

There's a disconnect here. If it's cached, it should say so, not tell you it succeeded when it didn't. Meanwhile, why do some detect internet connectivity and some don't? It's fully possible you're right, but I've seen no evidence of it.

I think that if you don't have network access, the crash logs are stored on your machine and uploaded to Microsoft whenever you get back online.

If you swap steps 2 & 1, do you get the same result?

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