New
#1
Thanks Norm. That could be a very useful tool in some/many situations. Nice Find.
Gary
This tool is something we really need to get people using to help in problem solving
"Windows 7 Problem Steps Recorder: miracle tool
January 11th, 2009 by Long Zheng
If you’ve ever offered technical support to other computer users, you might find yourself losing a slice of your sanity over their inability to describe the problem clearly. And most times it’s not the fault of the user, it’s just difficult to describe what you see with words. A feature new to Windows 7, called “Problem Steps Recorder” looks to be the missing tool for documenting where it all goes wrong.
What the tool is a simple but advanced variation of a screen capture software. Think of it as an automated “Print Screen” plus a little monkey in the background documenting all the mouse clicks, key strokes and gathers some technical reading material, who then ties up everything in a neat box and saves the results. The neat little box you get is a zipped MHTML report page which can be sent off directly to the help desk.
The report page is where this tool really shines. It actually is an XML page documenting each step of the user’s actions complete with a screenshot with the item highlighted. You can view the report as is, or as a slideshow, or even dig into the raw XML to expose greater detail like the X&Y coordinates of the mouse.
Here’s a report I prepared earlier for your viewing pleasure. You must use Internet Explorer to view MHTMLs.
To try the “Problem Steps Recorder” for yourself, type and select “psr.exe” in the Windows 7 start menu."
Recorded Problem Steps
See Tutorial: Problem Steps Recorder
Norm
yeah, great find - as the last commenter said, though, this is also referred to on hte W7 page - see last screenshot at How to install the Windows 7 Beta
Looks like a nice tool, but that still leaves the problem of explaining to the noobs on the other end of the phone how to start it, use it, and then zip and email the results...
At least Microsoft is moving in the right direction with this.
I think if someone is using Windows 7, they have enough brains to know how to type in psr.exe. Very good tool. Windows 7 just keeps getting better. Hopefully Microsoft implements this program into the start orb, or control panel. This actually would be a very good program to go in the control panel. Thanks for the info.
I want to say:
Don't forget to provide positive feedback so that tools like this make it to the Release Candidate.
Also. This tool has another use.
It can be used for a tutorial. Just do the steps you want someone to follow, and they can do exactly as you do. Also you can put comments for them to read.
Just make the screens a little bigger, and it needs some tweaking on recognizing what the mouse clicks. When I clicked on Notepad it said: User left click on Name(editable text).
Great tool..Its a well developed tool indeed..Thanks Norm
this will help a lot of fokes for sure good find..