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> In order for the document to help me, I clearly needed to find the four error parameters that used to be displayed with the blue screen on older versions of W

> In order for the document to help me, I clearly needed to find the four error parameters that used to be displayed with the blue screen on older versions of Windows. Windows 10 hides all the information by default, but I discovered that it’s possible to re-enable display of the extra error information by adding an entry to your registry. I hate stuff like this. What's the point of hiding the parameters, instead of tucking them away in the corner of the screen or something? It just makes things needlessly difficult. I know the answer is going to be "but it makes the UI look beautiful and most users don't know what the parameters mean anyway!" Error UIs don't need to be beautiful, they need to be functional. Definitely have a nice, clear user-friendly error message, but keep the overall screen technically informative. I can imagine that the only thing more infuriating than having a computer that won't boot, is having one that won't tell you the problem unless you change registry settings (which you can't, because it can't boot). Leaving the extra information there does not harm, and it give people something to Google if they do run into a problem.

spuz 8y ago
Yes. What I can't understand is why this extra diagnostic information is not available with a keyboard shortcut, rather than with a change to the registry. If you get a blue screen on boot, you typically have no way to alter the registry. Holding shift or something would make much more sense.
- Avery3R 8y ago
  It's inconvenient, but you could boot into a WinPE(recovery mode, or installation media) environment, and edit the registry from inside there.
  - Arnavion 8y ago
    Does booting a recovery environment work if (Windows believes that) the BIOS memory mapping is hosed, as in this case?
    - taborj 8y ago
      The article mentioned that he got the BSOD even booting a recovery environment.
- tareqak 8y ago
  Something similar is how remapping the Capslock key in Windows to another one has to be done via registry edit instead of a Control Panel setting. Given the renewed drive from Microsoft to become the developer’s OS of choice over the last five to ten years, choosing to not offer a more a accessible solution than a registry edit seems contrary to that drive for me.
  - HeWhoLurksLate 8y ago
    Honestly, it's probably something that just got overlooked. I've only ever hated my caps lock key enough on a keyboard to rebind it once.
    - lbotos 8y ago
      Seems like you aren't using Vim Then. Caps to escape is a common binding. It's not about hate, it's about ease of modal editing.
      - bscphil 8y ago
        After using a Chromebook for a while I discovered how much I love having my Caps Lock key remapped to launching the desktop search tool, and now I do it on all my computers. E.g. Milou for KDE, I think the MacOS one is called Spotlight.
      - thaumasiotes 8y ago
        I use caps-to-ctrl. Ctrl is so common that not being able to hit caps lock for it is now a major usability issue for me on other people's computers.
        cheschire 8y ago
        Older Sun keyboards used to have control in that location labelled by default. I remember buying a happy hacker keyboard back in the early 2000's that also had that as the default configuration, with a dip switch to flip it.
    - 8y ago
dzek69 8y ago
Another reason why I like Xiaomi software over other Android phones: When app crashes Android simply tells you that "Unfortunately, App has stopped". Xiaomi UI additionally presents you the stack trace. BTW: Android used to (?) have "Report" button, but it seems it's gone on new versions (Since 5.0?). Anybody knows where these reports were send? Probably to Android OS team, just like MS sends some crash infos of 3rd party apps to themselves.
- nneonneo 8y ago
  Yes but the stack trace is always visible in the logcat, which is the first port of call for developers.
- AnssiH 8y ago
  You can see the stack trace on stock Android when you click "Report", then "Show system info", then scroll down to "Stack trace" (didn't check exact wording). The Report button is still there - maybe it is not shown if there is no one to report to? For apps on Google Play, the user reports can be seen in Google Play Developer Console.
benj111 8y ago
"unless you change registry settings (which you can't, because it can't boot)." Yeah, I was a bit surprised by that also. Even when turned on the extra debugging info isn't exactly front and centre, why not keep it there.
- londons_explore 8y ago
  It's easy enough to load windows from a live USB stick and then load in the registry hives from your dead system. Arguably linux is the same - you can't edit files from grub - you need a bootable system to use vim.
magicalhippo 8y ago
Indeed. Regular users have no idea what to do with "friendly" error messages telling them about some unrecoverable failure either, while they just leaves the techies with nothing to go on. When raising exceptions in code, I make sure the error message contains as much relevant detail as I can stuff in there. Users will just mail a screenshot to support regardless (if they want help before the full error report gets home), so might as well give as much info as possible to make troubleshooting easier.
codedokode 8y ago
Windows has always been like this. Instead of giving any details they used to advise user to talk to their sysadmin.
- userbinator 8y ago
  BSoDs and application crashes used to be far, far more informative. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Windows_NT_BSOD_at_GVA_baggage_claim,_1999-10-03.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Windows_NT_BSOD_at_GVA_ba... https://i.stack.imgur.com/QCqSy.png https://i.stack.imgur.com/QCqSy.png
rkagerer 8y ago
Hah! I came here to quote the exact same sentence. Love to smack the goof who decided a giant sad face is more helpful than dumping even some minimal diagnostics fine print.
hrktb 8y ago
> Error UIs don't need to be beautiful, they need to be functional They need to be both. If it can’t be both, there’s as many arguments for it to be either human friendly or actionable. I think it comes down to it being a human/machine interface, and what the human side does with it. If for more than half of the users the next step from the error UI is to rage phone their IT department, and a sympathic UI might actually stop them from doing it (or at least be considerate), I’d argue a friendly UI should be prioritzed over an overly informational one. If it can be both, that’s better, but I wouldn’t be surprised if after user testing it appears it’s just damn hard. Also having an error displayed on screen that can’t be retrieved any other way (logs, diagnostic dump on a console somewhere else, whatever) is a design choice I’d loathe way more than not having the error number on the BSOD.
neilsimp1 8y ago
It took switching from Windows to Linux to figure out why my PC had issues booting sometimes. In Windows, it would just spin a little circle forever until I rebooted. After installing Linux and getting actual error messages, I learned that my SATA AHCI controller wasn't always working at boot and was fixed by plugging my HDD into a different port. The problem could have been fixed so much earlier had Windows just told me what was wrong.

spuz 8y ago

Yes. What I can't understand is why this extra diagnostic information is not available with a keyboard shortcut, rather than with a change to the registry. If you get a blue screen on boot, you typically have no way to alter the registry. Holding shift or something would make much more sense.

Avery3R 8y ago
It's inconvenient, but you could boot into a WinPE(recovery mode, or installation media) environment, and edit the registry from inside there.
- Arnavion 8y ago
  Does booting a recovery environment work if (Windows believes that) the BIOS memory mapping is hosed, as in this case?
  - taborj 8y ago
    The article mentioned that he got the BSOD even booting a recovery environment.
tareqak 8y ago
Something similar is how remapping the Capslock key in Windows to another one has to be done via registry edit instead of a Control Panel setting. Given the renewed drive from Microsoft to become the developer’s OS of choice over the last five to ten years, choosing to not offer a more a accessible solution than a registry edit seems contrary to that drive for me.
- HeWhoLurksLate 8y ago
  Honestly, it's probably something that just got overlooked. I've only ever hated my caps lock key enough on a keyboard to rebind it once.
  - lbotos 8y ago
    Seems like you aren't using Vim Then. Caps to escape is a common binding. It's not about hate, it's about ease of modal editing.
    - bscphil 8y ago
      After using a Chromebook for a while I discovered how much I love having my Caps Lock key remapped to launching the desktop search tool, and now I do it on all my computers. E.g. Milou for KDE, I think the MacOS one is called Spotlight.
    - thaumasiotes 8y ago
      I use caps-to-ctrl. Ctrl is so common that not being able to hit caps lock for it is now a major usability issue for me on other people's computers.
      - cheschire 8y ago
        Older Sun keyboards used to have control in that location labelled by default. I remember buying a happy hacker keyboard back in the early 2000's that also had that as the default configuration, with a dip switch to flip it.
  - 8y ago

dzek69 8y ago

Another reason why I like Xiaomi software over other Android phones: When app crashes Android simply tells you that "Unfortunately, App has stopped". Xiaomi UI additionally presents you the stack trace. BTW: Android used to (?) have "Report" button, but it seems it's gone on new versions (Since 5.0?). Anybody knows where these reports were send? Probably to Android OS team, just like MS sends some crash infos of 3rd party apps to themselves.

nneonneo 8y ago
Yes but the stack trace is always visible in the logcat, which is the first port of call for developers.
AnssiH 8y ago
You can see the stack trace on stock Android when you click "Report", then "Show system info", then scroll down to "Stack trace" (didn't check exact wording). The Report button is still there - maybe it is not shown if there is no one to report to? For apps on Google Play, the user reports can be seen in Google Play Developer Console.

benj111 8y ago

"unless you change registry settings (which you can't, because it can't boot)." Yeah, I was a bit surprised by that also. Even when turned on the extra debugging info isn't exactly front and centre, why not keep it there.

londons_explore 8y ago
It's easy enough to load windows from a live USB stick and then load in the registry hives from your dead system. Arguably linux is the same - you can't edit files from grub - you need a bootable system to use vim.

magicalhippo 8y ago

Indeed. Regular users have no idea what to do with "friendly" error messages telling them about some unrecoverable failure either, while they just leaves the techies with nothing to go on. When raising exceptions in code, I make sure the error message contains as much relevant detail as I can stuff in there. Users will just mail a screenshot to support regardless (if they want help before the full error report gets home), so might as well give as much info as possible to make troubleshooting easier.

codedokode 8y ago

Windows has always been like this. Instead of giving any details they used to advise user to talk to their sysadmin.

userbinator 8y ago
BSoDs and application crashes used to be far, far more informative. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Windows_NT_BSOD_at_GVA_baggage_claim,_1999-10-03.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Windows_NT_BSOD_at_GVA_ba... https://i.stack.imgur.com/QCqSy.png https://i.stack.imgur.com/QCqSy.png

rkagerer 8y ago

Hah! I came here to quote the exact same sentence. Love to smack the goof who decided a giant sad face is more helpful than dumping even some minimal diagnostics fine print.

hrktb 8y ago

> Error UIs don't need to be beautiful, they need to be functional They need to be both. If it can’t be both, there’s as many arguments for it to be either human friendly or actionable. I think it comes down to it being a human/machine interface, and what the human side does with it. If for more than half of the users the next step from the error UI is to rage phone their IT department, and a sympathic UI might actually stop them from doing it (or at least be considerate), I’d argue a friendly UI should be prioritzed over an overly informational one. If it can be both, that’s better, but I wouldn’t be surprised if after user testing it appears it’s just damn hard. Also having an error displayed on screen that can’t be retrieved any other way (logs, diagnostic dump on a console somewhere else, whatever) is a design choice I’d loathe way more than not having the error number on the BSOD.

neilsimp1 8y ago

It took switching from Windows to Linux to figure out why my PC had issues booting sometimes. In Windows, it would just spin a little circle forever until I rebooted. After installing Linux and getting actual error messages, I learned that my SATA AHCI controller wasn't always working at boot and was fixed by plugging my HDD into a different port. The problem could have been fixed so much earlier had Windows just told me what was wrong.