Abstract: The invention is a software module configured for handling failure information from a large base of clients. The invention is configured for a four-stage network conversation between a client and a server. In the first stage, the module collects failure information and creates a string address. The string address is sent to the server, where the string address is compared to predefined string addresses. In the second stage, the client creates a record query with the failure information for the server. The record query is sent to the server and compared to predefined failure records. In the third stage, the client transfers additional failure information to the server, and the server acknowledges information transfer. In the fourth stage, the client sends a confirmation message to the server. When necessary, a predefined string address corresponding to the particular failure information is created on the server for subsequent reference by a stage one network conversation.

Abstract: Method and system for reporting program failures. The system extracts information about a failure in a program module, such as the location of the failure, and establishes communication with a repository, such as a server. The information about the failure may be used to search the repository to determine whether the particular bug that caused the failure has already been fixed. If so, then the system assists the user in downloading the fix (such as by pointing the user to a particular website for downloading a service release). If a particular failure has not been diagnosed and corrected, then additional relevant information from the user's computer may be uploaded to the repository to provide the developers of the program module enough information about the failure to diagnose the bug and fix it (in a service release or in a later version of the program module).

Abstract: A method and system for injecting an exception into a hung program module to recover unsaved data. The method and system allows a user to determine that the program module is hung and inject an exception into the hung program module. In response to the injected exception, program code, within the program module, is activated to detect the crash and launch a failure reporting executable program that instructs the hung program module to execute its data recovery program. The file recovery program recovers the unsaved data and notifies the failure reporting executable program when it has completed the data recovery. Once the failure reporting executable program receives the notification, it will instruct the operating system to restart the program module. The restarted program module then displays a user interface with a list of the unsaved data that were recovered. The user interface also provides controls for a user to select, from the list of recovered data, the data that the program module will keep.