diff --git a/src/BizHawk.Bizware.DirectX/DirectInputAdapter.cs b/src/BizHawk.Bizware.DirectX/DirectInputAdapter.cs
index 5cb93994dd..b166ef6d65 100644
--- a/src/BizHawk.Bizware.DirectX/DirectInputAdapter.cs
+++ b/src/BizHawk.Bizware.DirectX/DirectInputAdapter.cs
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ namespace BizHawk.Bizware.DirectX
 			}
 		}
 
-		public IEnumerable<KeyEvent> ProcessHostKeyboards() => KeyInput.Update(_config ?? throw new NullReferenceException("o noes"))
+		public IEnumerable<KeyEvent> ProcessHostKeyboards() => KeyInput.Update(_config ?? throw new Exception(nameof(ProcessHostKeyboards) + " called before the global config was passed"))
 			.Concat(IPCKeyInput.Update());
 
 		public void UpdateConfig(Config config) => _config = config;
diff --git a/src/BizHawk.Client.DiscoHawk/MainDiscoForm.cs b/src/BizHawk.Client.DiscoHawk/MainDiscoForm.cs
index e3be44274f..09f29a1b3a 100644
--- a/src/BizHawk.Client.DiscoHawk/MainDiscoForm.cs
+++ b/src/BizHawk.Client.DiscoHawk/MainDiscoForm.cs
@@ -18,7 +18,9 @@ namespace BizHawk.Client.DiscoHawk
 		public MainDiscoForm()
 		{
 			InitializeComponent();
-			Icon = new Icon(typeof(MainDiscoForm).Assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("BizHawk.Client.DiscoHawk.discohawk.ico") ?? throw new NullReferenceException());
+			var icoStream = typeof(MainDiscoForm).Assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("BizHawk.Client.DiscoHawk.discohawk.ico");
+			if (icoStream != null) Icon = new Icon(icoStream);
+			else Console.WriteLine("couldn't load .ico EmbeddedResource?");
 		}
 
 		private void MainDiscoForm_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
diff --git a/src/BizHawk.Common/TempFileManager.cs b/src/BizHawk.Common/TempFileManager.cs
index 44ff48318f..54ea95ebe9 100644
--- a/src/BizHawk.Common/TempFileManager.cs
+++ b/src/BizHawk.Common/TempFileManager.cs
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ namespace BizHawk.Common
 		public static string RenameTempFilenameForDelete(string path)
 		{
 			string filename = Path.GetFileName(path);
-			var dir = Path.GetDirectoryName(path) ?? throw new NullReferenceException();
+			var dir = Path.GetDirectoryName(path) ?? throw new InvalidOperationException();
 			if (!filename.StartsWith("biz-"))
 			{
 				throw new InvalidOperationException();