I have two computers, both with Windows XP SP 2. On one of them, when
a program crashes I get an old style dialog window saying something
like "The instruction at '0x0041137e' referenced memory at
'0x00000000'. The memory could not be 'written'." and with OK and
Cancel buttons. On the other one, I get the "friendly" dialog window
saying "Testcrash.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We
are sorry for the inconvenience." (I have disabled error reporting in
System -> Advanced -> Error Reporting.)

The problem is that I don't remember how I did to turn this off on the
first computer. I want the second computer to behave like the first.
How do I do that?

Hi musiclover,

I'm glad my suggestion worked, here is the answer below.

Open Start->run->gpedit.msc
and have a look at Computer
Configuration->Administrative->Templates->System and go to Error
Reporting and set it do 'disabled'.

Thanks.
endo

Excellent! Exactly what I was looking for.

Isn't the "non friendly" crash simply a more serious crash?

No, I'm getting different dialogs for the exact same crash. I use a
simple C++ program with the statement *((int*)0) = 0 as a test.
(Thanks anyway for your comment!)

Right click in "My Computer" > "Properties" > "Report of errors" >
"Disable report of errors" > "Notify me when occur critical errors"

Thanks, but I already tried that. If I uncheck "But notify me when
critical errors occur" then I get no dialog at all. And on the first
computer, error reporting is still enabled (though not really, just
according to this setting).

Hi,

I can't really test this but try start->run->gpedit.msc
and have a look at Computer Configuration->Administrative
Templates->System and maybe Error Reporting or the other sections in
there.

Or try tweakui linked on the right on this page:

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Please let me know if this helps.

Thanks.
endo

Thanks endo-ga! Running gpedit.msc and setting "Display Error
Notification" to "Disabled" did the trick! And I remember now that's
what I did on the first computer (2 years ago or so...). Submit your
comment as an answer and I will give you a high rating!