Tracing Windows Dump Reports

Applies to TestComplete 15.47, last modified on January 20, 2023
Information in this topic applies to desktop applications only.

If an unhandled exception occurs in an application causing it to terminate unexpectedly, the Windows operating system generates a dump report and displays an error message. Depending on the operating system version, it suggests sending the generated report to Microsoft or using the data contained in the report to find a solution to the problem on the network.

The generated report can contain error code and address, information on modules loaded in memory, call stack and other information. It may be important to keep track of data contained in the report to be able to determine the cause of the exception.

If such an exception occurs in the application under test, TestComplete can trace Windows error messages and catch generated dump reports.

How TestComplete Traces Windows Dumps

  • Start testing your application. If an unhandled exception occurs making the application terminate unexpectedly, the Windows operating system will generate a dump report.
  • TestComplete detects that Windows has generated a dump report and performs the following actions:

    1. Posts an error message to the test log informing that the tested application has crashed.
    2. Copies the Windows dump report to the current project’s Log folder.
    3. Posts an ID of the crashed process and a link to the dump file to the Details panel of the test log.
    4. Depending on the On error project property and On error test item property (if you run your test as a test item), continues or stops the test execution.

After the test run is over, you can click the link in the Details panel to open the dump file.

Specifics of Tracing Windows Dumps with TestComplete

  • The Windows error message window is not displayed during the test run. This prevents unexpected and overlapping window errors in tests.
  • TestComplete tracks Windows error messages in all applications and processes running during the test playback. That is, your test log may contain error reports generated for any application, not only for the application under test.

See Also

Tracing Exceptions, Crashes and Freezes in Tested Applications

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