✚ FixMyBSOD

Privacy policy

Last updated: July 7, 2026

FixMyBSOD is a free crash-analysis service. The short version: the crash dump you upload is analyzed and then deleted from our servers after processing. We keep a de-identified technical summary of each analysis to improve our diagnosis engine. If you tick the optional "help improve the engine" checkbox, we keep your dump file itself for up to 90 days — deletable by you anytime with one click. This page explains exactly what that means.

What a crash dump contains

A Windows minidump (the .dmp files in C:\Windows\Minidump\) is a technical snapshot taken at the moment of a blue screen. It typically contains:

• The stop code (bug check) and its parameters
• The list of loaded drivers, with names and versions
• Kernel-mode call stacks (which system code was running)
• Basic system information: Windows build, CPU count, machine name
• Small fragments of kernel memory from around the crash

Minidumps generally do not contain your documents, photos, browsing history, or saved passwords. However, because they include raw fragments of memory, we treat every dump as potentially sensitive and handle it accordingly. Don't upload dumps from systems you're not authorized to debug.

What we collect and keep

• Your crash dump — deleted after processing. The dump file you upload is analyzed and then deleted from our servers immediately after processing (whether the analysis succeeded or failed). We reserve the right to retain de-identified or anonymized versions of the data we processed to improve our service — the raw dump file itself is not kept unless you donate it (next section).
• Derived, de-identified technical results. The technical output of the analysis: stop code, faulting driver, failure bucket, symbolized stack frames, driver name list, Windows build, dump format and size, and processing times. These records contain no account, no name, no email, no IP address, and no raw memory contents. They are kept after your dump is deleted — they are how the engine improves.
• Fix-outcome records (only if you connect a follow-up). Every report has a private link. If you later use that link to tell us how things went — either by uploading a new crash dump for comparison, or by tapping "no new crashes so far" — we record a de-identified outcome: which fix the report recommended, whether the crash recurred (and whether the culprit driver's build changed between the two dumps), how often you said it was crashing, and the time elapsed. These records are keyed to the crash's technical data (content hashes, stop codes, driver names) — no account, no name, no email, no IP address — and we use them to learn which recommended fixes actually work. Connecting a follow-up is always your choice; it only happens through your possession of the report link.
• An anonymous network identifier. To enforce the daily free limit, we compute a salted one-way hash of your IP address. The raw IP address is never kept with your dump or your analysis, and when you delete your upload this identifier is removed from your analysis records too. Standard web server and Cloudflare logs (which include IPs) exist short-term for security and abuse prevention, as on virtually every website.
• Anonymous usage counters. We count product-usage events ourselves, first-party — for example how many visitors selected a file, started an upload, or saw a report — as plain daily totals. No cookies, no identifiers, no IP addresses are recorded with these counts. Beyond these counters and Cloudflare's aggregate traffic stats, we run no analytics and no advertising scripts.

We do not require an account, and we don't collect your name or email.

Donated dumps — the optional checkbox

Before each analysis there is an optional, unchecked checkbox: "Help improve the engine — allow us to keep this crash dump file." If you tick it, we keep that dump file (deduplicated by content hash) and use it to test and improve our analysis engine — for example, re-running it when we improve driver attribution. Donated dumps (including dumps uploaded before July 5, 2026 under our previous opt-in terms):

• Are deleted automatically no later than 90 days after upload.
• Can be deleted by you anytime: every analysis report has a "Delete my upload" button. Clicking it immediately deletes the kept dump file and your upload records (including the hashed network identifier) from our servers. No account or email needed — the report link itself is your proof of ownership. Report links stop working after about 7 days, so delete from the report page while you have it open, or use email (below) afterwards.
• Deletion by email: you can always email [email protected] — attach the same .dmp file (so we can locate it by content hash) or describe the upload, and we'll delete the kept dump and confirm.

If you leave the checkbox unticked, there is nothing to delete: the dump is already gone after processing. The "Delete my upload" button still works — it erases your upload records and the hashed network identifier. What deletion never covers: the de-identified technical results described above (stop code, faulting driver, stack symbols, driver names — no memory contents, no identifiers), which we retain to improve the diagnosis engine.

Who processes your data (subprocessors)

• Amazon Web Services — our servers, where dumps are uploaded and analyzed (encrypted disks, access restricted to the operators).
• Cloudflare — CDN, TLS, and DDoS protection in front of the site; provides us aggregate traffic counts.
• Microsoft — during analysis, the debugger fetches debug symbols from Microsoft's public symbol server. Only module identifiers (names, GUIDs) are sent to Microsoft — never your dump.
• Anthropic — the plain-English explanation is generated by Claude, Anthropic's AI model. We send a technical summary derived from your dump (stop code, faulting driver, stack frames) — never the dump file itself. Anthropic's API terms do not permit them to train on this data.

We never sell your data, share raw dumps with anyone outside the subprocessors above, or expose dumps publicly. Donated dumps live outside any web-served directory while we hold them.

Your choices

• Upload without ticking the checkbox (the default), and your dump is deleted after processing — nothing of the file itself remains.
• Tick the optional checkbox to donate your dump to engine development; delete it anytime with the "Delete my upload" button or by email (above).
• Rather your dump never left your machine at all? The instant in-browser preview at whycrash.com, from the same team, runs entirely on your PC.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Email [email protected].