OBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT OF APPLICATION CRASHES FROM A CUSTOMER ENVIRONMENT

• US 20080172583A1
• Filed: 01/15/2007
• Published: 07/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ellis, John Leo, Papatla, Ram P., Mahajan, Dhananjay Madhusudan
• Granted Patent: US 7,954,008 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0766 Error or fault reporting or storing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3672 Test management

Abstract

A computerized method for collecting error data and providing error reports relating to occurrences of errors of software applications installed on one or more computing devices is disclosed. Data for describing software applications and identifying software application errors is collected from the computing devices and stored in a catalog. Data associated with error occurrences is obtained and combined with related data being stored in the catalog. A report is generated based on the error occurrences and related catalog data.

Claims

1. A computerized method for collecting error data and providing error reports relating to occurrences of errors of software applications installed on one or more computing devices, said computerized method comprising:

collecting data for storing in a catalog, wherein the catalog cross references the data including descriptive information associated with the installed software applications to files associated with the installed software applications;

obtaining error data indicating a particular file associated with the occurrence of an error of a particular one of the installed software applications; and

generating an error report based on the descriptive information cross referenced in the catalog to the particular file indicated by the error data.

2. The computerized method of claim 1 further comprising identifying a solution associated with the error indicated by the error data and wherein the error report is further based on results of said search.

3. The computerized method of claim 2 further comprising searching periodically for a solution associated with the error indicated by the error data until a solution is identified;

generating another error report indicating the identified solution.

4. The computerized method of claim 1 wherein the descriptive information includes solutions for errors indicated in the cross referenced files associated with the installed software applications.

5. The computerized method of claim 1 further comprising acquiring additional descriptive information in the catalog cross referenced to an existing data in the catalog

6. The computerized method of claim 4 further comprising

determining whether the existing file has been indicated in the error data received;

and

generating an error report based on the acquired additional descriptive information cross referenced in the catalog to the existing indicated file received in the error data.

7. The computerized method of claim 1 further comprising recording the obtained error data.

8. The computerized method of claim 7 wherein the descriptive information includes the recorded received error data.

9. The computerized method of claim 7 wherein the error report compares the occurrence of errors in a software application installed on a first group of computing devices with the occurrence of errors in the software application installed on a second group of computing devices, wherein said first and second groups are based on an environment associated with the computing devices.

10. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein one or more tangible computer-readable media have computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

11. A computerized method for collecting error data and providing error reports relating to occurrences of errors of software applications installed on one or more selected computing devices, said computerized method comprising:

distributing a discovery agent to the computing device wherein the said discovery agent is deployed on the one or more selected computing devices for gathering registration information corresponding to the respective one or more selected computing devices;

receiving the registration information respectively corresponding to each of the one or more selected computing devices;

registering each of the one or more selected computing devices based on the received registration information;

tracking the occurrences of errors on software applications installed on each of the one or more registered computing devices; and

generating a report based on the tracked occurrences of errors of software applications installed on the registered computing devices.

12. The computerized method of claim 11 further comprising identifying a user of a computing device.

13. The computerized method of claim 12 wherein identifying a user includes receiving login information from the user and authenticating the user based on the received login information wherein authenticating the user comprises associating a unique identifier with the user.

14. The computerized method of claim 13 further comprising associating the unique identifier associated with the identified user to the registered computing devices.

15. The computerized method of claim 12 wherein the identified user and one or more certain registered computing devices are associated with a particular organization.

16. The computerized method of claim 15 further comprising identifying a second user of a second computing device wherein said second identified user and second one or more registered computing devices are associated with a second organization and wherein the generated report identifies the tracked occurrences of errors of software application installed on the certain registered one or more computing devices associated with the particular organization and identifies the tracked occurrences of errors of software applications installed on the second one or more registered computing devices associated with the second organization.

17. A computerized method of collecting error data and providing error reports relating to occurrences of errors of software applications installed on one or more computing devices connected to a data communication network, said computerized method comprising:

downloading to a first computing device a discovery agent;

distributing the discovery agent to a second computing device connected to the data communicating network;

installing the discovery agent on both the first and the second computing device wherein the discovery agent registers with the server the computing device on which the discovery agent is installed;

accessing, by the server, error data relating to the occurrence of errors of software applications installed on the registered computing devices; and

providing reports to the first computing device summarizing the errors of the registered computing devices.

18. The computerized method of claim 17 wherein registering with a server by the discovery agent includes providing the server information about the software and hardware of the computing device on which the discovery agent is installed.

19. The computerized method of claim 18 further comprising creating a catalog including descriptive information cross referenced to the software and hardware information provided during registration about the computing device and the error data relating to the occurrence of errors of the software application installed on the computing device.

20. The computerized method of claim 19 wherein the errors of the provided reports are summarized based on the information cross referenced to the error data relating to the errors in the catalog.