Turning on minidump logs gives you a better chance at troubleshooting system crashes. Here is how to enable minidump logs in Windows 10.
When there is an unrecoverable fatal error, the Windows operating crashes with a BSoD error. In those cases, Windows automatically creates an error log called minidump or BSoD logs. Generally, a minidump contains a lot of critical system information like the installed driver details, installed applications, running processes, system settings, hardware info, etc. Using all this information, a minidump allows you to debug the crash to find or narrow down the problem that caused the fatal crash.
As useful as minidumps are, by default, Windows 10 might not create minidump logs every time for every system crash. In fact, you might see messages such as “minidumps are not enabled by default on client versions of Windows.” In those cases, you have to manually enable minidump in Windows 10 and configure them as needed. Once enabled, you can open BSoD logs in the event of a system crash.
In this simple guide, let me show the steps to enable minidump logs in Windows 10.
Note: The steps given below will work in Windows 7 and 8.
Steps to enable minidump logs in Windows
The BSoD crash logs or Minidump logs can be enabled from the Advanced System Settings tool. Follow the steps listed below to do so.
- Right-click on the Start menu.
- Select the “System” option.
- Click on “Advanced System Settings” under Related Settings.
- Make sure you are in the “Advanced” tab.
- Click “Settings” under “Startup and Recovery.”
- Select the “Small memory dump (256KB)” option from the bottom dropdown menu.
- Click “Ok” to save changes.
- Close the main window.
- Close the Settings app.
- Restart Windows.
First, right-click on the Start menu and select the “System” option. Next, click on the “Advanced System Settings” link under the “Related Settings” section. You will find the Related Settings section on the right sidebar or at the bottom of the main panel.
Under the “Advanced” tab, click the “Settings” button under the “Startup and Recovery” section.
Since we want to create minidump logs, select the “Small memory dump (256KB)” option from the “Write debugging information” section. To create a full dump file, select “Complete memory dump.” After selecting the option, click the “OK” button to save changes.
Close both the main window and the Settings app. Restart the system to apply the settings.
That is it. From now on, whenever Windows crashes, it will automatically create minidump logs in the system folder. You can open minidump logs to troubleshoot and debug the problem.
Disable minidump logs
If you don’t want Windows to create minidump files on system crash, select “none” from the dropdown menu in the “Start and Recovery” window. After that, restart the system and the settings will be applied automatically.
That is it. It is that simple to enable minidump logs in Windows 10.
I hope that helps. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible.
