Taming the WER (Windows Error Reporting) on Windows 7 / 2008

Problem: Your C: drive is out of space on your Windows 7 computer / Windows 2008 Server and you need ASAP some disk space and wish to cleanup the Windows Error Reportings which often takes some GB.

Information: The acronym WER stands for “Windows Error Report”, and is a Microsoft technology that saved crash information.The idea was, that those infos where send via the winqual service to hardware and software companies, after a crash was detected. The idea isn´t bad at all, but WER has a problem, it never deletes the data gathered automatically. In Windows 7 you can remove the content via the “Disk Cleanup” (you need to select that from the list). However in Windows 2008 you do not have a “Disk Cleanup” per default. If you add it as mentioned here, it will not bring up the service to cleanup to files as offered by the Windows 7 “Disk Cleanup”. But if you asap need some disk space back or wish to prevent that the files are being created (keep noted that you might need them at some point) you can check the following:

Solution 1 (Cleanup the Reports via Windows Menu):

Deleting the reports is quite easy via the following steps:

1.) click on start -> Control Panel

2.) Now type “problem reports” in the search field on the top right corner (called “Search Control Panel”)

3.) You will now find a “View all problem reports” option. Click on it.

4.) In the windows which will then popup you have the option to press the “Clear all problem reports” where you need to click on.

5.) If you now check the WER ReportQueue folder here C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue it should be empty and no files should be left.

Depending on your OS Language the English keywords might not work here!

Solution 2 (Cleanup the Reports and Disable the service):

If you do not wish that these files will be generated, you can completely disable them.

Windows 7:

1. Perform Solution 1 above to remove the files
2. Open Local Group Policy Editor by typing gpedit.msc in the search box
3. click on Computer Configuration -> strong>Administrative Templates -> Systems -> Internet Communication Management -> Internet Communication Settings >
4. Finally select Turn Off Windows Error Reporting
5. Restart your PC
6. Check the folder “C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue”

Windows 2008:

1. Perform Solution 1 above to remove the files
2. click on start -> All Programs -> Administrative Tools -> Server Manager
3. Scroll to the “Resources and Support” area at the bottom and expand it
4. click on “Configure Windows Error Reporting” and switch it off

   
   If the menu entry is called “Turn on Windows Error Reporting” click on it and make sure the feature is really disabled.

Solution 3 (Move the WER files to another drive):

As mentioned by Bob in the comments, its also possible to change the registry and point to another drive. In the error case you would then have the files and can use them, but they wouldn´t fill up your boot drive. More info’s for that solution can be found here.