Problem Steps Recorder (PSR) in Windows

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

You can use Problem Steps Recorder to automatically capture the steps you take on a computer, including a text description of where you clicked and a picture of the screen during each click. Once you capture these steps, you can save them to a file that can be used by a support professional or someone else helping you with a computer problem.

Notes

When you record steps on your computer, anything you type will not be recorded. If what you type is an important part of recreating the problem you’re trying to solve, use the comment feature described below to highlight where the problem is occurring.

Some programs, like a full-screen game, might not be captured accurately.

To record and save steps on your computer

In Windows 7, open Problem Steps Recorder by clicking the Start button, and then type psr. In the list of results, click psr.

In Windows 8, open Problem Steps Recorder by right clicking Start button, click Run, type psr and press enter.

• Click Start Record. On your computer, go through the steps on your computer to reproduce the problem. You can pause the recording at any time, and then resume it later.
• Click Stop Record.
• 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).
• To view the record of the steps you recorded, open the .zip file you just saved, and then double-click the file. The document will open in your browser.

To send the problem steps in 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 your default e‑mail program with the last recorded file attached to it.

You won’t be able to click the Send to e‑mail recipient option until you’ve recorded and saved a file.

To annotate problem steps

• Click Start Record.
• When you want to add a comment, click Add Comment.
• Use your mouse to highlight the part of the screen that you want to comment on, type your text in the Highlight Problem and Comment box, and then click OK.
• Click Stop Record.
• In the Save As dialog box, type a name for the file, and then click Save.
• To view the record of the steps you recorded, open the .zip file you just saved, and then double-click the file. The document will open in your browser.

To adjust settings

When you adjust settings for Problem Steps Recorder, they’re only saved for your current session. After you close and reopen Problem Steps Recorder, it will return to the regular settings.

Click the help down arrow and then click Settings.

You can change the following settings for Problem Steps Recorder:

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