Yes my dear 7 readers, not only am I back to blogging but I come bearing free gifts.
There is a utility in Windows 7 that many users don’t know about, and it will probably become one of your favorites after reading this. It’s called the Problem Steps Recorder. It’s perfect for documenting quickly how a user is encountering an error, a family member having a PC issues, etc… To use this utility, and in most cases you will have someone else use it so you can understand what their problem may be, do the following:
1. Start PSR
a. Start > Search > ‘psr’
b. Select psr.exe from Programs
c. Select ‘Start Record’
2. Now have the user reproduce the steps that are causing the problem.
3. Stop Recording
a. Select ‘Stop Record’ (note – you could also pause recording, and then start recording some more)
4. PSR will output the files into a .zip file. Just give it a name and choose where you want to save it.
So what do you get?
The output is a .mht file, with a date and time stamp. For example: Problem_20120524_2347.mht. The review is actually quite helpful, broken down by steps and screen shots which can be viewed in a couple of different ways. Enjoy.
