For once, this is a really useful application that the WindowsBlog (German) dug out. I couldn't resist reviewing it for 4sysops. The main purpose of Bad Application is to crash. Yes, you just read the last sentence correctly. As you can see in the screenshot, the tool has four options: hang process, crash process, start flashing, and terminate Explorer. The last two features are bit lame, but I do like the first two.
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Hang process will just start an endless loop, which will change its window title to the well-known and often experienced "not responding". I get this telling "not responding" message from Firefox and Outlook at least once a day. It is good to know that other apps have this feature, too.
Crash process reliably does what it is supposed to do. It crashes the Bad Application process, which will call Windows into action "checking for a solution to the problem". As usual, Windows somehow can't find a solution, so you better just hit the "cancel" button.
Now, you will probably ask, what the heck is such a tool good for? The answer is simple. If you want to test a monitoring solution such as System Center Desktop Error Monitoring, then you need an application that crashes reliably. It is not that it is difficult to find applications that crash regularly. The problem is that most applications only crash at the worst moment, but usually not when you want them to. There is no doubt that Murphy's Law belongs to the best confirmed scientific laws.
Bad Application is also useful for Apple believers. If you want to convert one of your friends and make her support your church, then you just have to crash Bad Application a couple of times on her new Windows 7 laptop, and then show her the reliability history in the reliability monitor. If you look long enough at the curve, you might even be able to confirm your own religious prejudices. 😉
