One of the commonest (and perhaps strangest) reactions people have to their computers throwing up random runtime errors is to feel guilty about it. Perhaps they feel it is somehow their fault that they should have been more careful about what they did.

This stems from most people’s fundamental lack of understanding and deep mistrust of computers. It’s an alien system to them, and the feelings of fear and suspicion they have towards it are easily translated into guilt.

Most commonly, this kind of reaction will be brought on by Windows runtime errors, because they are the most commonly encountered types of error on a Windows machine.

You’re happily chatting away to your girlfriend when suddenly the chat program quits in mid-sentence, and you’re shown a nondescript box which says a runtime error has occurred. Good for the Redmond guys that they bothered to provide an explanation, but the fact remains that your girlfriend will probably be mad at you for being so inept with everything.

So the next time she shouts at you, you tell her it wasn’t your fault after all, because Windows runtime errors can happen for a number of reasons, most of them independent of any action by the user.

Very often, Windows runtime errors are the result of the lack of memory, also known as RAM. With computer programs getting heavier and more complex by the day, RAM is something of which you can never have enough nowadays. It seems like only yesterday when state-of-the-art advanced computers used to come fitted with 64 Megs of RAM. Compare that with the minimum memory requirement of Windows Vista, which was released recently: 1 GB to run at all, 2 gigs or more to perform well. Which is like 32 times what we used to have on formidable hardware a few years ago.

It so happens that when the amount of RAM on your machine isn’t adequate for everything you’re running at once, your machine may throw a fault. It shouldn’t, and it’s probably an indication that the particular program and the OS aren’t as bug-free as you should like, but then that’s life. Do what you can – add more RAM to cover up for someone else’s fault. At least it will keep your girlfriend calm.

Also, try to identify which programs are the most prone to this throwing up this kind of Windows runtime error. Most programs have at least one or two good alternatives, so try them out to see if you can do without the buggy software.

Sometimes Windows runtime errors are the result of some kind of glitch in the Windows registry. Use something like RegClean or RegCure (direct download link) to detect and (hopefully) solve such problems.

If all else fails, do what every veteran Windows user knows they should have to do every few months – reinstall Windows and all programs from scratch. That’ll take care of the accumulated viruses, and also give you an excuse not to chat with your girlfriend for a couple of days at least.