[RBASE-L] - Off subject - Win XP

[Joe Sowers]

This might interest some of you.  I got it from one of my newsletters.

Joe

Why Must XP Constantly Phone Home?

Windows XP is, in many ways, a big improvement over its predecessors. It's more stable than 9x/ME and includes useful new features, such as Remote Desktop (in Pro) and Remote Assistance (in both Home and Pro) that don't come with Windows 2000. However, probably the most annoying new thing is the operating system's "co-dependency" issues; it seems to need to "phone home" (i.e., connect to Microsoft's computers) for something or another every ten minutes or so.

You'll find a good rant about this in one of today's Fav Links, but here I want to address just one way this problem manifests itself that is especially annoying, and what you can do about it. When a program crashes or "stops responding," you now not only get an error message, but you also get a dialog box asking if you'd like to report the error to Microsoft. The stated purpose is so that Microsoft can analyze information related to the problem, allowing them to know what applications are causing crashes and to devise fixes. However, the error reporting tool sends information such as your IP address that could be used to identify you. Also collected is the digital product ID, which can be used to identify your license (or determine if you're using pirated software?), and even, in some cases, your documents.
 
Now Microsoft promises that the data they collect will only be used for solving users' problems and that it will never be used for marketing purposes. Nevertheless, many users are not comfortable with sending off a message to the "mothership" each time they experience a problem and are annoyed with having to click the "Do not send" button every time to prevent it. The good news is that you can turn off this error reporting "feature" if you want: right click My Computer, select Properties, select Advanced, select Error Reporting and check the Disable error reporting box.

Now you no longer have to worry about dealing with your operating system's compulsion to tell its Big Brothers every time an application gets out of line, and XP will have one less thing to call home about.