What to do when "CrashOnCtrlScroll" doesn't seem to work

Question

You've tried to enable a useful developer feature named CrashOnCtrlScroll.

You then tried to trigger a crash. Unfortunately, no crash happened.

What can you try now?

Answer 1

Here are some tips. In case the tips don't help you, I also offer links to some possible workarounds.

PS/2 vs. USB

Make sure you created the "CrashOnCtrlScroll" value in the correct Registry key location. There are different key locations for PS/2 vs. USB vs. Hyper-V keyboards. Please see here.

If you're not sure which location to use: It's okay to create the same value in all three locations.

Reboot first

You must reboot your machine in order to make the Registry setting take effect.

Use the rightmost Ctrl key

Before pressing Scroll lock twice, you must hold down the rightmost Ctrl key.

Do not use the other Ctrl key; it won't work.

Possible workarounds

If you've tried all three of the above tips, and you still can't trigger a crash, perhaps you could instead:

• Force a system crash from a debugger.
• Force a system crash with the power button.
• Force a system crash from the command line.
• Force a system crash using a non-maskable interrupt.
• Create a dump file without a system crash.
• Post a new question, either on Stack Overflow or here on Super User, to seek our advice.

Conclusion

This post is partially based on an older post by Mohit Jain.