If your system is plagued by error messages caused by the Dw20.exe, then worry not, you have come to the right place. Read this article to know how to remove the Dw20.exe, and get rid of this error-reporting tool.
What is Dw20.exe?
The Dw20.exe is a Microsoft Windows error reporting tool, which automatically collects information about crashes, and lets the user send this crash report to Microsoft.
Why is it present in your computer?
The Dw20.exe shares the crash reports of Microsoft Office and other applications with Microsoft. This helps Microsoft in fixing those crashes and eliminating them in the next software version.
Can it be removed safely without affecting other applications?
Yes. Like I’ve explained above, the Dw20.exe doesn’t enhance/add any functionality to either the Windows OS or any other program. It sits on your hard drive just to send crash reports to Microsoft for making their software better. So, it wouldn’t pose any harm to your computer if you remove it.
If you have noticed that the errors appear only when you are using Internet Explorer,
then proceed to this section for fixing them.
Kill the Dw20.exe process
A temporary workaround would be to kill the process of Dw20.exe so that it doesn’t bother you until the next system reboot.
Follow the steps below for getting rid of the Dw20.exe temporarily:
1. Open ‘Windows Task Manager’ by pressing the Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys simultaneously and in the given order.
2. Go to the ‘Processes’ tab and find ‘Dw20.exe’. Right-click on it, and select ‘End Process’. Again click on ‘End process’ on a window that appears.
If you do not see the ‘Dw20.exe’ in the ‘Processes’ tab, then it means that it is not running at the moment.
Follow the method below to prevent it from starting up again.
Get rid of the Dw20.exe by this Registry Editor trick:
Warning: Making changes to the registry is not a joke. We will not be held responsible for incorrect use of these tricks. For the sake of precaution, backup the registry before you do the modifications. So, if things go wrong, you can restore it back to its previous state.
Making these changes via the registry will disable the Dw20.exe application error reporting tool from starting up ever again.
Navigate to the following entries in the ‘Registry Editor’ and add ‘DWReportee’ value of ‘1’:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\PCHealth\ErrorReporting\DW HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\PCHealth\ErrorReporting\DW
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\PCHealth\ErrorReporting\DW
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\PCHealth\ErrorReporting\DW
Congrats! You’ve disabled the application error-reporting tool permanently.
Getting rid of errors caused by the Dw20.exe when using the Internet Explorer
You might also face errors caused by this error-reporting application when you click on the drop-down menu of Internet Explorer (IE) to see your browsing history. IE will freeze and you’ll see a pop-up with two options: ‘allow’ and ‘don’t allow’. Select any one of them and you will see another error.
This problem is caused when you have too many items in your browsing history.
Follow these steps to clear the browsing history:
1. Go to ‘Run’ by pressing Start+R keys; enter ‘inetcpl.cpl’ and click on ‘OK’.
2. Find the section of browsing history under General tab, and click on ‘Delete’ button to open the ‘Delete Browsing History’ window.
Shortcut method for opening ‘Delete Browsing History’ window
Open Internet Explorer and press the Ctrl+Shift+Del keys.
3. Select all that you want to delete when the window of ‘Delete Browsing History’ opens, and then click on ‘Delete’ button. Close Internet Explorer.
If you had been facing frequent error messages from the Dw20.exe application, then your computer will now run significantly faster than before.