Microsoft® Manual of Style, Fourth Edition

F

facsimile

Do not use to refer to the kind of document sent through a fax machine. Use fax instead. Use facsimile only to refer to an exact reproduction of something else. See also fax.

fail

In content for a general audience, use only to refer to disks and other hardware. Use stop responding to refer to programs or the operating system.

It is all right to use fail in content for a technical audience when necessary to describe an error condition. For example, E_FAIL is a common return value in COM programs, and it is logical to say that a function that returns E_FAIL has failed to do something or other.

Do not use crash in content for a general audience unless you have no other choice. In content for a technical audience, crash may be the best word ...