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Microsoft has provided the Problem Steps Recorder to help service desks and programmers to find a runtime bug.

By Johan van Soest.

Published : 2014-09-01.

Last updated : 2019-07-26.

Prior to Windows 7, Windows Error Reporting (WER) collected error reports that indicated problems in need of repair. These error reports contain helpful information that describes the general nature of a problem, but not enough information to determine its root cause. For that, developers need a tool to reproduce the crash/hang scenario for debugging.

A new application, Problem Steps Recorder (PSR.exe), is shipping on all builds of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and the server operatingsystems Windows 2008r2, Windows 2012 R2 and Windows 2016. This feature enables the collection of the actions performed by a user while encountering a crash so that testers and developers can reproduce the situation for analysis and debugging.

Problem Steps Recorder during recording.

How to start the Problem Steps Recorder

Press Windows key + "R"
type "PSR" and press "Enter"

Click the Windows Start button
in the search box type "problem step" and click the program "Record steps to reproduce a problem"

This product is also very handy to quickly produce an end-users manual. It also collects information about data entered, dialog and windows names and the context of the pressed, selected or clicked GUI elements. Images and texts are placed in a HTML form and compressed in a ZIP file.

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