What is WatsonRC.dat?
WatsonRC.dat is part of Watson Remote Control and developed by Microsoft Corporation according to the WatsonRC.dat version information.
WatsonRC.dat's description is "Watson Remote Control"
WatsonRC.dat is digitally signed by Microsoft Corporation.
WatsonRC.dat is usually located in the 'c:\MSOCache\All Users\microsoft.watson.watsonrc12.data\' folder.
If you have additional information about the file, please share it with the FreeFixer users by posting a comment at the bottom of this page.
Vendor and version information [?]
The following is the available information on WatsonRC.dat:
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Product name | Watson Remote Control |
| Company name | Microsoft Corporation |
| File description | Watson Remote Control |
| Internal name | watsonrc |
| Original filename | WatsonRC.dat |
| Legal copyright | © 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. |
| Product version | 12.0.8026 |
| File version | 12.0.8026 |
Here's a screenshot of the file properties when displayed by Windows Explorer:
| Product name | Watson Remote Control |
| Company name | Microsoft Corporation |
| File description | Watson Remote Control |
| Internal name | watsonrc |
| Original filename | WatsonRC.dat |
| Legal copyright | © 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All .. |
| Product version | 12.0.8026 |
| File version | 12.0.8026 |
Digital signatures [?]
WatsonRC.dat has a valid digital signature.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Signer name | Microsoft Corporation |
| Certificate issuer name | Microsoft Code Signing PCA |
| Certificate serial number | 61062781000000000008 |
Hashes [?]
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| MD5 | e03fe1d2974d57aed2eebee633d90fef |
| SHA256 | b5754d681e07d00e7f83e36f0889b716dea96441ae7dd03b4d340edd3e413438 |
What will you do with WatsonRC.dat?
To help other users, please let us know what you will do with WatsonRC.dat:
What did other users do?
The poll result listed below shows what users chose to do with WatsonRC.dat. 82% have voted for removal. Based on votes from 181 users.
NOTE: Please do not use this poll as the only source of input to determine what you will do with WatsonRC.dat.
Malware or legitimate?
If you feel that you need more information to determine if your should keep this file or remove it, please read this guide.
And now some shameless self promotion ;)
Hi, my name is Roger Karlsson. I've been running this website since 2006. I want to let you know about the FreeFixer program. FreeFixer is a freeware tool that analyzes your system and let you manually identify unwanted programs. Once you've identified some malware files, FreeFixer is pretty good at removing them. You can download FreeFixer here. It runs on Windows 2000/XP/2003/2008/2016/2019/Vista/7/8/8.1/10. Supports both 32- and 64-bit Windows.
If you have questions, feedback on FreeFixer or the freefixer.com website, need help analyzing FreeFixer's scan result or just want to say hello, please contact me. You can find my email address at the contact page.
Comments
Please share with the other users what you think about this file. What does this file do? Is it legitimate or something that your computer is better without? Do you know how it was installed on your system? Did you install it yourself or did it come bundled with some other software? Is it running smoothly or do you get some error message? Any information that will help to document this file is welcome. Thank you for your contributions.
I'm reading all new comments so don't hesitate to post a question about the file. If I don't have the answer perhaps another user can help you.
I don't want some guy named Watson to have a remote control file on my computer.
# 23 Dec 2010, 18:36
_Alex_ writes
WatsonRC.dat is an application debugger included with the Microsoft Windows operating system.. It is named after Doctor Watson of Sherlock Holmes fame, the idea being that it would collect error information (symptoms) following a program crash. The use of the word "Watson" has since been expanded to include general end-user feedback services.
The information obtained and logged by Dr. Watson is the information needed by technical support personnel to diagnose a program error for a computer running Windows. A text file (usually drwtsn32.log) is created whenever an error is detected, and can be delivered to support personnel by the method they prefer. A crash dump file can also be created, which is a binary file that a programmer can load into a debugger. Dr. Watson can be made to generate more exacting information for debugging purposes if the appropriate symbol files are installed and the symbol search path (environment variable) is set.
When a program error occurs in Windows, the system searches for a program error handler. A program error handler deals with errors as they arise during the running of a program. If the system does not find a program error handler, the system verifies that the program is not currently being debugged and considers the error to be unhandled. The system then processes unhandled errors by looking in the registry for a program error debugger for which Dr. Watson is the default.
Hope it helps.
# 19 Apr 2012, 13:17
warren bean writes
If this program and the users folder it was located in was removed and deleted and then recovered using EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and then stored to a flash drive, how do you reinstall the folder to it's original location so the computer can recognize it?
I accidentally removed this and the users folder because I did not know what the program was for. I also deleted my public documents folder in C:\ and lost most of my desktop programs and icons. Can you explain how to recover these properly?
# 12 Mar 2015, 11:42
KaiN writes