<p>Whilst analysing some legacy code with FXCop, it occurred to me is it really that bad to catch a general exception error within a try block or should you be looking for a specific exception.  Thoughts on a postcard please.</p>

Well, I don't see any difference between catching a general exception or a specific one, except that when having multiple catch blocks, you can react differently depending on what the exception is.
In conclusion, you will catch both
```
IOException
```
and
```
NullPointerException
```
with a generic
```
Exception
```
, but the way your program should react is probably different.