An application is associated with a main thread that is running on an operating system. A secondary thread monitors the main thread to determine whether the application is in a hang state. A ghost window that matches the hung application window is displayed on a user interface and the hung application is hidden from view. An application crash is attempted on the main thread when the user closes the ghost window. If the crash is successful, any unsaved data associated with the hung application is recovered. Error information associated with the cause of the application hang may also be collected.