Along with some very nice new visual changes and reported stability changes Windows 7 is already beging to be accepted by the computing community. One tool I would like to mention that I have found particularly helpful, especially if you support desktops, is the Problem Steps Recorder or PSR. PSR records that steps that a user takes and gives you screen shot along with the “step by step play” of what the user did to cause the error or what the user was doing when the error occured.

Lets just imagine for a minute that you are a support tech and a user of yours is receiving an error from an application they are running. Trying your hardest you attempt to get the user to explain what they were doing when the error occured but they insist “I wasn’t doing anything”. Well simply have the user launch PSR.exe from a command prompt or from the “RUN” menu and they will receive a window that has a record button. Instruct the user to click the “Start Record” button and then attempt to recreate the error that they were experiencing. Once the user has recreated the error they simply click “Stop Record”. The program creates some HTML files that give tech support (you) a step by step of what the user did along with screen shots, including screen shot of the error.

Remote Assistance is a great tool, when it works and I am sure you have all felt the fustration I have in trying to explain to a user how to get Remote Assistance to work on there computer. Problem Steps Recorder is an easy to use program that will give you a log of what the user was doing when the error occured.

In my personal opinion I belive that this tool alone is a great + for the Window 7 OS.