Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Many Windows error messages can often be quickly and easily copied to the clipboard with a single keystroke.
Can I avoid retyping error messages when I need to report them?
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In short, yes. Sometimes.
Microsoft points out how in one of the shortest Knowledgebase articles that I've ever seen. And as short as it is, the article even manages to include an error!
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As of Windows 2000 and in its successor Windows XP, if you're presented with an error message, press CTRL+C. You'll hear a beep, but there's a good chance that the message just got copied to the clipboard. Fire up Notepad and hit Paste. If you get the message box text, then the the function is supported for that message.
I generated the message box above by trying to Start->Run a program that doesn't exist. Pressing CTRL+C put the following in the clipboard:
--------------------------- notfound.exe --------------------------- Windows cannot find 'notfound.exe'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search. --------------------------- OK ---------------------------
How do you know which messages this works with? Yes, that's the rub. You don't. It's generally a matter of try it and see. Applications that use the system default message box fuctionality get the copy-to-clipboard feature for free. Applications that create their own error message reporting dialog - even if it looks like the standard box - may or may not include the functionality.
Oh, and the error in Microsoft's knowledgebase article? It reads: "paste to the clipboard," which should obviously read "copy to the clipboard." Paste is what you do when you place the contents of the clipboard into a document.
Article C1870 - December 16, 2003
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
It's amazing! Each time I receive one of your "Ask Leo"'s and hope to quickly download,
say, 1 out of 10 items, I wind up reading and downloading all 10. Each always has something
new and useful.
Just a few comments and a query:
1. Looks like MS has already disabled the link
to the message you found an error in.
2. I would love to know of a small program that
could replace bulky "Word" for pasting in those
occasional 'screen prints'. For the moment, as
your reader points out, though, 'Paint' will
have to do.
3. Can you possibly help with this one:
(it's indirectly related to topic)
How do you stop a "Save web page" in progress when it justs sits there at 0%, for hours on
end - without crashing all your open programs,
websites, etc., via stopping the process?
In the last decade or so, using at least 3 different Win versions, pressing the "X"
or "cancel" keys (umpteen thousand times) worked
maybe once or twice.
What sense is there in having the 'X' and 'cancel' tabs in a message box if they
never or hardly ever work?
That's like false advertizing. Period. If it
never works, it has no business being there.
I'll retract that, if Im the only one in the universe with that problem.
Jed...
Posted by: Jed Timmer at July 10, 2006 4:45 AM1. Works for me :-)
Posted by: Leo A. Notenboom at July 10, 2006 9:36 AM2. For text (as per this article): notepad, for images: paint.
3. I'm sure you're not the only one, but there are different "stages" (for lack of a better word) to a Save operation - some that can easily be interrupted, and some that cannot. Clearly you're getting hung up at the later, and killing IE might be the only approach.
I got an error messsage beginning with "Microsoft Excel has encounted a problem and needs to close...." I am sure you've seen it. It wants my permission to send an error report and has a link to view the contents of the error report. The next window is titled "Error Report Contents" and has 2 text display areas. The top one contains information about the process that will be reported. This is the area I wanted to copy and I tried ctrl+c which often works where right-click>copy is disabled. I could not copy or even highlight (ctrl+a) the text. The mouse cursor would not switch to text select mode except in the lower window which is for files to be included in the error report. The upper window has a huge amount of data in it; 15 lines of text per window (one window contains approx one module's data) and at module 117 the thread data started in hex code, this was not even a tenth of the scroll bar's remaing range....EEEEK!
Posted by: Alex at September 22, 2006 7:31 PMIt is rare that I can't find some way to copy but this is one. Since I just now learned another technique from your article, I thought maybe I should ask.
I am also looking for a solution to alex's problem... I think I'll give up for now.
Posted by: aaron at December 5, 2006 7:02 AMSame question as Alex and Aaron - I would imagine this is saved as a text file or something somewhere... sure would be nice to know where.
Posted by: Ben at December 27, 2006 7:57 AM