This guide describes how to use standard Microsoft Problem Steps Recorder tool, which comes pre-installed to Windows 7 and Windows 8 systems, to capture the steps taken on a computer, including a text description of where user clicked and a picture of the screen during each click.

Record and save steps

Step 1. Open Problem Steps Recorder by clicking the Start button , and then typing psr. In the list of results, click psr.

Step 2. Click Start Record. Go through the steps on a computer to reproduce the problem. It is possible to pause the recording at any time, and then resume it later

Step 3. Click Stop Record

Step 4. In the Save As dialog box, type a name for the file, and then click Save (the file is saved with the .zip file name extension).

Step 5. To view the record of the recorded steps, open saved .zip file, and then double-click the file. The document will open in browser.

Send problem steps via e-mail

After recording and saving a .zip file, click the help down arrow , and then click Send to E‑mail recipient. This will open an e‑mail message in default e‑mail program with the last recorded file attached to it.

Annotate problem steps

Step 1. Open Problem Steps Recorder by clicking the Start button , and then typing psr. In the list of results, click psr.

Step 2. Click Start Record

Step 3. To add a comment, click Add Comment

Step 4. Use cursor to highlight the part of the screen that need to comment on, type text in the Highlight Problem and Comment box, and then click OK

Step 5. Click Stop Record and save record

Step 6. Saved record will store screen shot with highlighted area and comment, which is connected with highlighted area.

Adjust Problem Steps Recorder settings

Click the help down arrow , and then click Settings.

The following settings for Problem Steps Recorder can be changed:

• Output Location – location where to save a file after recording, click the Browse button to set a default output file name.
• Enable screen capture – if you do not want to capture the screen shots along with the click information, select No. This might be a consideration if users are taking screen shots of a program that contains personal information, such as bank statements, and they are sharing the screen shots with someone else.
• Number of recent screen captures to store – the default value is 25 screens. Number of screen shots can be increased or decreased. Problem Steps Recorder only records the default number of screen shots. For example, if user took 30 screen shots during a recording but only had 25 screen shots as the default, user would be missing the first five screen shots. In this case, user would want to increase the number of default screen shots.

Problem Steps Recorder for Windows XP and Vista users

There is no built-in feature to do the Problem Steps Recorder work in older versions of Windows, but there is a free tool available on TechNet that does the same thing.

This tool can be downloaded by proceeding to this URL: ScreenRecorder.