Every developer wishes there was a way that an end-users could quickly and simply record a repro for the problem that they’re running into that is unique to their machine. Windows 7 comes to the rescue! Part of the in-built diagnostic tools that we use internally to send feedback on the product, the Problem Steps Recorder provides a simple screen capture tool that enables you to record a series of actions.

Once you hit “record”, it tracks your mouse and keyboard and captures screenshots with any comments you choose to associate alongside them. Once you stop recording, it saves the whole thing to a ZIP file, containing an HTML-based “slide show” of the steps. It’s a really neat little tool and I can’t wait for it to become ubiquitous on every desktop!

The program is called psr.exe; you can also search for it from Control Panel under “Record steps to reproduce a problem”.

If you require support, please contact us and we can help sort your problems.

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If you just can’t see the point of the desktop Gadgets included in Windows 7, or even the Sidebar gadgets in Windows Vista, you’ll be happy to know that you can easily disable them with a simple configuration change.

If you are really, really new to Windows 7, the gadgets are accessible via the desktop context menu, and can be dropped anywhere on the desktop you’d like.

Disabling Sidebar/Desktop Gadgets in Windows 7

To disable them, simply open up Control Panel and type “features” into the search box. Find the link for “Turn Windows features on or off” and open it.

Remove the checkbox from Windows Gadget Platform, click the OK button and restart your computer when it’s all done.

Now the item should be gone from the menu…

EASY!

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The Explorer window in Windows 7 and Vista doesn’t have an Up button, which drives me completely batty.

Thankfully I found a keyboard shortcut replacement.

Note: These screenshots are from Vista, but it works the same in Windows 7.

Let’s say I’m in my x:\wpmu\wp-content directory. Sure, I can usually click the “wpmu” part of the path and simulate the Up button, but it doesn’t always work, especially if I’ve lowered the size of the window or tiled two windows beside each other.

This window is 600px wide, shouldn’t I have an easier way to go Up? Turns out I do… if I just hit the following key combination:

   Alt+Up

Ahhh, so much better… now I’m in the parent directory!

Note that this is also the quickest way to get to the Desktop folder… just keep hitting Alt+Up until you get to the right folder.

Other interesting keyboard shortcuts for Explorer:

• Alt+Right - Go forward
• Alt+Left- Go back
• Alt+D – Focus the address bar and select the current path.
• F4 – Pop up the dropdown in the address bar, actually somewhat useful.
• Alt+Enter – Properties of the selected file
• Ctrl+Mousewheel – change the size of the icons
• F11 - Put explorer into Fullscreen mode. Actually kinda weird, and I have no idea why this function is even there.

Enjoy!

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Remember in Vista how it was an annoying chore getting it to recognize external devices like printers, phones, and digital cameras?

Well now in Windows 7 there is a cool feature called Device Stage that allows you to easily see and manage all of your external devices from one spot.

Using Device Stage

To check out the digital devices you have connected to your PC go to Start and Devices and Printers.

This opens up a nicely laid out visual display of all of the devices connected to the computer.

When you first start it notice that you can click on the message about getting device information from the Internet.

This will keep devices updated with the most recent information and drivers.

The cool part is that when you first plug in a device Windows 7 will install the drivers almost instantly.

After plugging in the device you can see it in the Taskbar where you can hover over it to get a nice looking image of it and some limited information.

For instance I plugged in a Creative Zen and can see how much battery life is left and the amount of space left on it.  You can also right click on the device and access certain controls as well.

Now when you click on the device you will presented with an easy to navigate control panel of sorts that allows you to manage the settings and features of the device.

Here is a shot of a printer connected and you can see there are a bunch of options for managing it.

It is up to the hardware manufacturer to determine if their device will be compatible with Device Stage.  The way to determine this is to simply plug in the device and see if Device Stage opens up.  All of the newer devices I plugged in were recognized, some with more features to manage them than others, again this is up to the manufacturers and the firmware installed.  This new feature is a great way to get your devices working without having to deal with installing drivers. Cool!

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A lot of noise has been made about the fact that the Library folder inside your user home folder is now hidden by default in Lion. Even though you can’t just go to your home folder and click on it any more, there are still plenty of ways to access it. The easiest way that should be suitable for most people is to hold the Option key while clicking on the Go menu. This will make the Library folder appear in the middle of the list of places.

If you want to permanently show the Library folder like in Snow Leopard,

it is possible to make it visible again. Open up Terminal (located in Applications/Utilities), paste in the following line and press Return:

chflags nohidden ~/Library 

There’s no need to restart the Finder — the change should occur instantly. If you change your mind and want to hide the Library again, use the following command:

chflags hidden ~/Library

Make all hidden files visible

This is probably overkill if the Library folder is the only hidden item you want to access, but there is a simple Terminal command to make all hidden files visible in the Finder:

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