BADAPP.exe, also referred to as "BadApp" and "Bad App", is a program developed at Microsoft to deliberately attempt to crash or introduce a hung process in a running session of Microsoft Windows for testing purposes.[1]
History
In 1991, IBM publicly used Bad App 1.0 to claim that Windows 3.0 was unstable. In retaliation, Microsoft created a program named "Terminator III" to crash IBM's OS/2.[2] Ray G. Duncan had originally written BADAPP in C as a "toy program" while he was working at Microsoft Press to simulate an application crash in Windows 3.x which would result in a Blue Screen of Death. It was originally available as BADAPP16.EXE for early 16-bit versions of Windows, followed by a 32-bit version for Windows NT.[3][4] It is important to obtain BadApp from a trusted source as software hosted on 3rd party sites can contain malware.[5][6]
Microsoft technical staff recommend using WaitingOn to troubleshoot such cases in Windows 7 and later.[7] Another option included with recent versions of Windows is the Task Manager.
Gallery
References
- ↑ Manage Operating System Tools (PDF), CompTIA IT Fundamentals+, p.50. 2020-04-17.
- ↑ A plea to IBM, Microsoft: hey, kids, let's play fair by Stewart Alsop, InfoWorld, p.4. 1991-08-05.
- ↑ Power Programming: The Windows 3.1 Tool Help DLL, Part 1 by Ray Duncan, PC Magazine, p.492. 1992-08.
- ↑ Ray Duncan, LinkedIn. Accessed 2022-06-01.
- ↑ BadApp.exe Process Keeps on Crashing by Jacob Brown, Techyv. 2014-02-13.
- ↑ bad app by JC03, Microsoft Community. 2021-05-28.
- ↑ Alternative Tools for Application Hangs by Teeda Niemann, Microsoft Tech Community. 2020-09-18.