Date:  04 September, 2010
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May 13

Written by: David Howard
5/13/2010 7:34 PM 

PSR Tool

One of our engineers, Alan Kruger, pointed out a somewhat hidden feature of Windows 7 recently.  Windows has a little known but handy tool called PSR, which stands for ("Problem Steps Recorder") that creates handy documentation of a problem.  You can have any user run it to document what they did that causes an issue in their world.  To use it, just have the user use the start Command and the in the "Run" box, type "PSR".  It will open a small window that has a button to record their actions.  Have them click the "Start Record" button and then they can do the same steps they always do to encounter an issue. 

For example, if every time they print a certain Word document to a local printer they get an error, have them start PSR, start recording, and then go into Word and try to print that document.  After they have encountered the error, they can go back to the PSR window to "Stop Record". PSR will then prompt them for a file name of a Zip file that will (by default) be stored on their Windows desktop.  They can then email that zip file to you or other tech support reps.  Inside the zip file, you will find a compiled HTML file, with the steps documented, screen shots, info the user entered, relevant program info like versions, etc.  It makes it much easier to collect helpful info to diagnose and correct the problem. 

But even beyond that, I can see a possible use for users to quickly document a business process, While certainly not a business process reengineering tool, it could be a nice for department level analysts to quickly document and share the steps needed for certain tasks. 

 

Copyright ©2010 David Howard

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