Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 3/1/2006

Question
Whenever I get an error with my Internet Explorer 6.0, a pop-up appears asking me if I would like to run Dr. Watson Debugger. Is this a legitimate program?

Answer
If your operating system is Windows 95, messages like this are normal. In Windows 98 and Windows ME, you have to activate the Dr. Watson program before you would get these messages. You can read about what someone would have had to do with your computer (if it isn't Windows 95) to run Dr. Watson at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=18583 . If you have Windows 98 or ME, you can find out if the real Dr. Watson program really is in your startup group by clicking Start --> Run and typing msconfig in the box. Click the Startup tab to see all the programs your computer runs at startup. Dr. Watson should appear in this list as Drwatson.

If you are running Windows XP, a message specifying "Dr. Watson" would be a very weird message to get! It would mean some sort of malware was running.

If it turns out that these Dr. Watson messages on your computer aren't legitimate, please let me know and I'll help you get rid of it.