How to automatically restart a crashed app on Windows 10

Apps crash on Windows 10. Some crash because they’re unstable, some crash because they’re unable to get the power/resources they need, and others crash for random reasons. A perfectly stable app can crash if there’s something wrong with your OS or if another component that it depends on is missing or corrupted, or unstable. Some apps will restart after they crash but most don’t. If you want to automatically restart a crashed app, you can do so with Restart on crash.

Restart on Crash is a free app that lets you monitor select apps (of your own choosing). The app can monitor an app that crashes or simply detect if an app isn’t running. In the first case, if Windows generates the app not responding message, the app can dismiss it as well.

Automatically restart a crashed app

Download and run Restart on crash. It’s a good idea to already have the app you want to restart running because it makes it easier to add it to the list of apps Restart on Crash needs to restart if it crashes.

Click the Add button to add an app for Restart on Crash to monitor.

In the window that opens, you can add the app either by clicking the ‘Select a file’ button and selecting the app’s EXE or, you can click ‘Select a running application’ and select the app from the list of running applications that opens.

Be careful with the list though; it also lists system processes and other services that the system is running. Don’t select something you don’t recognize. After you add the app, you can choose to restart it when it crashes or, if you want the app to be started if it isn’t already running, select the ‘It isn’t running’ option.

That’s all you need to do. Click Ok and minimize it to the system try.

When Restart on Crash detects an app has crashed or is no longer running (depending on your settings), it will wait 60 seconds before it runs the app again. You can change this by clicking the Settings button on the app’s main window. As for the restart settings, they are set on a per-app basis.

The app gives mixed results with UWP apps. It works with Slack but not with Netflix. If you intend to use Restart on Crash to ensure a particular app is always running, you should test it out ahead of time.

Restart on Crash is only responsible for restarting an app. It will not save any work in progress and it will not re-open a file that you had open.

If you need to close an app at a certain time, there’s an app that can do that as well.