Blackberry Desktop Software Fails on Windows 7 or Vista

I have noticed many posts about issues with the Blackberry Desktop software and Windows 7 or Vista.  On Windows 7 you may see a pop up window with the error message: Blackberry desktop software has stopped working Windows is collecting more information about the problem. This might take several minutes. This message will display just after you try to start the Blackberry Desktop software.

What is happening here is that the Blackberry Desktop software has some incompatibility with Windows 7 that causes Windows 7 to go to the Microsoft site to automatically check for solutions to the problem.  If there is no connection to the internet then Windows hangs and the Blackberry Desktop software cannot start.  Here is where it gets really strange.  We tried to produce the problem by turning off the wireless switch on the Lenovo T61.  If we went from an active wireless connection and simply turned off the wireless switch the Blackberry Desktop software would still start.  In order to reproduce the problem we had to remove the wireless connection we were using from the manage wireless networks in Windows 7 and reboot then we could not open the Blackberry Desktop software.

If you need the Blackberry Desktop software to tether your laptop to your cell phone for an internet connection this is a very frustrating situation because the Blackberry Desktop software will fail when you are not connected to the internet and that is when you need the Blackberry Desktop to work so you can tether to connect.

To resolve the problem try this:

1.      From the START menu search for choose how to report problems and click on choose how to report problems under Control Panel.

2.      On the Choose when to check for solutions to problems reports window change the selection to Never check for solutions (not recommended)

This will prevent Windows 7 from trying to make connection to the Microsoft site and thus allow the Blackberry Desktop software to open and not hang.

Happy tethering with your Blackberry!