Cool tool: Windows 7 Problem Steps Recorder
For those of you who have or are going to be getting Windows 7, you have a great tool built into the OS. I was playing with it earlier, and I have a strong feeling this tool will play a very significant role in product support scenarios. It's going to be especially helpful for those of us (like me) whose relatives and friends are always asking for our help with their computers.
With the Problem Steps Recorder, there's no more sitting on the phone or IM asking somone to describe their screen or a menu. If the person you're trying to help has Windows 7, simply tell them to click Start and type psr. Then they click the "Record" button and do whatever they need to do in order to make their problem or issue occur.
Once they've finished recording the steps to create a problem, click "Stop Recording" and it saves a ZIP file. Inside the ZIP file is an MHTML file containing step by step annotated screenshots of every step the user took, complete with context highlighting of the UI elements the user interacted with.
I can't say enough about how cool this is, and how much of a difference it'll make for anyone who is trying to assist someone with a problem with their computer.
Also,Chris Pirillo blogs about the PSR here and even includes some video! Check it out.
