Simplify documentation with Steps Recorder

Here’s a way to simplify the documentation of installation tasks significantly.

Automatically record every mouse click via screenshot and also track the entered text.

Steps Recorder comes with Microsoft Windows and is a small hidden function in your operating system. 

Using Steps Recorder

Since Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 it is called Steps Recorder. Before that it was called “Problem Steps Recorder” (psr). That’s where the name you have to enter comes from: PSR.EXE. Just run cmd, type “psr” and hit enter.

The program starts relatively inconspicously.

Two important tips for the use of Steps Recorder

1. Run PSR with the same user account and settings as the program you want to document. An example:
   When you install a programm using “run as administrator“, but use PSR with regular user rights, you will not get screenshots.
    
2. Steps Recorder records only 25 screenshots in its default configuration. Increase this in the settings of the tool in case you need more:

When the to be documented configuration is completed, screenshots and the entered text are saved together in a MHTML file.

For me, the program has simplified my work frequently because doing screenshots via copy/paste during a configuration can be extremely disturbing and constraining.

Technet Video with helpful tips

Here’s a Video from Microsofts Technet with more helpful tips.

Link