The present invention, generally speaking, "instruments" an arbitrary software program, without changing the software program, to automate malfunction detection and reporting. Although users can be invited to enter a description of what the user was doing prior to receiving the error, report generation and transmission to a remote server can be fully automatic and transparent to the user. In the case of beta testing, therefore, a software developer is guaranteed to receive all pertinent information about malfunctions of an application without having to rely on "fallible humans" for this information. The effectiveness of beta testing, in terms of ultimately contributing to an improved product, is therefore greatly increased. Various kinds of malfunctions may be detected and reported, including an application "crashing," becoming "hung," etc.