OS crash

• quick instructions for changing minidump into a human-readable text log
• understanding the information you find
  • The highest-level information of a BSOD is the code after the word "STOP". For stop codes, see: (XP)
  • [microsoft.com] Anatomy of a Blue Screen
  • STOP messages

Application crash, OS-wide

• Some application crash data gets written to the ConfigPanel>Admin>Event viewer.
• .DMP files are generated when a BSOD occurs, or when an application occurs, via Dr. Watson. Just go Start>Run>drwtsn32
  • minidumps are compressed forms of .dmp files [1] [2]
  • how to read a Dr. Watson log file

.NET

• .NET apps are different, of course. But, near as I can gather, the same .dmp files can be captured, but they're just analyzed very differently on the development side.
• for .NET though, ADPlus is probably a good way to go, as long as you have all the .pdb files you need