Diehard told me about this little Windows 7 jewel at the beginning of the year. I have not heard anyone mention it so I thought I would tell everyone about it today. If you write articles, blog, troubleshoot PCs or just like cool tools, then this one is for you.
Problem Steps Recorder – What is it?
This Windows 7 application records your mouse clicks and actions while taking screenshots of everything you do! Just try and it and you will see.
You can use Problem Steps Recorder to automatically capture the steps you take on a computer, including a text description of where you clicked and a picture of the screen during each click (called a screen shot). Once you capture these steps, you can save them to a file that can be used by a support professional or someone else helping you with a computer problem.
Using Problem Steps Recorder
Open Problem Steps Recorder on your Windows 7 PC by going to the Start Menu and typing PSR.
Before You Start – Important Settings Adjustment
The default is 25 screens. You can always increase or decrease the number of screen shots. Problem Steps Recorder only records the default number of screen shots.
For example, if you took 40 screen shots during a recording but only had 25 screen shots as the default, you would be missing the first fifteen screen shots. I always change mine to 100 as a habit.
IMPORTANT: YOU HAVE TO CHANGE IT EACH TIME YOU START THE PROGRAM!
Click Start Record.
On your PC, go through the steps on your computer to reproduce the problem or document a process. You can pause the recording at any time and resume it later.
When you are done Click Stop Record.
In the Save As dialog box, type a name for the file, and then click Save (the file is saved with the .zip file name extension).
fter you save the file, open the ZIP file to see the mht file.
Double click on the mht file. The document will open in your browser.
The Output File
The output file is a mht file with information such as time, action and full screenshots. Click on the images to see them full size. SWEET!
Down at the bottom the file shows additional details.
Add your comments in PSR
You can also add comments while using Problem Steps Recorder. When you want to add a comment, click Add Comment. Use your mouse to highlight the part of the screen that you want to comment on, type your text in the Highlight Problem and Comment box, and then click OK.
Conclusion
This is best tool ever for those of us who write and use screenshots for our articles! One of your clients having an issue with a PC? Use PSR to document the issue!
The only bummer is that some mail programs see this type of file as a virus threat so you will have to send it over Outlook or another mail program or use an external drive.
Hope you enjoy it. Thanks again to John “Diehard” Zajdler for the heads up. Interesting.
Tim
Thanks Tim – that is really useful!
Thanks for the mention Tim.