PSR

One of the biggest problems for any technical support company especially one as big as Geek Squad has is replicating a problem that a customer or user is experiencing.  Thanks to a new tool in Windows 7 called Problems Steps Recorder (psr.exe) this can be a problem of the past.  When a technician is unable to replicate the problem they will be able to give a client instructions to use PSR to record the steps they are taking when a problem occurs.

The process is so simple that it would be shocking for any user to complain that it is too difficult for them.  Once the user presses record all user actions are recorded and saved to a nice MHT log file inside of a zip archive ready for e-mailing if needed.  While that is a good start what really takes it over the top is the inclusion of screen shots that can even be played as a slide show.  It’s almost as if someone was looking at an advanced keylogger and decided they would make it help someone instead of rob them blind.

I will use Problem Steps Recorder to demonstrate a bug in Windows 7 where when a file name extension is renamed and a highlighted area is created when you simply click on another part of the screen instead of hitting Enter.  It’s a common bug for a programmer to miss because most geeks that rename file extensions simply hit enter.  It’s just too bad I actually showed this bug in person to a lead programmer at Microsoft and he fixed the bug in Vista but now is back in Windows 7.

Download the Problem Steps Recorder log file (it’s big at over a MB and is best opened with IE)

Thanks to Long Zheng at istartedsomething for running in to this first and posting about it.