Problem Steps Recorder

Problem Steps Recorder

Is someone trying to explain to you what is happening but you don't get is? Or would you like to make a little movie of how to do something on the computer instead of taking for ever explaining it to people who just don't understand?

Simply open the start menu and type PSR and press Enter, then click Start Record. Problem Steps Recorder will record every click and keypress, take screen grabs, and package everything up into a single zipped MHTML file ready for emailing.

This and other tips are found here.

Slow Right Click Response

My right click response in Win7 Explorer became intollerably slow. I install so much junk all the time that I had no idea what may have caused it. Nirsoft to the rescue with ShellExView. The problem may be a Context Menu add on from some third party, even Microsoft. The first one I disabled was Windows Live ID Sign-in Helper. Disabling it seemed to do the trick. Sign-in Helper must have been installed when I installed some of the Windows Live Essentials.

Some of the key Nirsoft utilities are available in the Liberkey Ultimate download.

Reliability Monitor Windows 7

Reliability Monitor: I too often forget this feature of Windows 7. If you are having problems this might help trace it down. Just type "reliability" into the Start Menu and the link should come up. Windows 7 is an amazingly stable and forgiving operating system but stuff happens. Windows Events Viewer can give even more information but the Reliability Monitor is clear and simple.

Restore Windows 7 Security Settings To Default With Security Restore

Restore Windows 7 Security Settings To Default With Security Restore: "Quite often we come across Windows security errors such as Registry Disabled or You don’t have permission to access. Troubleshooting these Windows errors can be challenging because there are so many possible causes (in most of the cases it’s because of a virus or malicious item)."

Comments: Could be useful if totally lost, can't say I would have needed it yet.

Using Clean Boot To Troubleshoot

How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

To help troubleshoot error messages and other issues, you can start Windows Vista or Windows 7 by using a minimal set of drivers and startup programs. This kind of startup is known as a "clean boot." A clean boot helps eliminate software conflicts. This article describes how to troubleshoot problems in Windows Vista or in Windows 7 by performing a clean boot. This article also describes how to start the Windows Installer service and how to reset the computer so that it starts as usual.

Path Too Deep (too long file name)

Windows can only handle around 25x characters (including spaces)for files and folders in a path or they can not be deleted or removed. I had a rogue back-up program write files and folders too deep to count. Here is what worked and what did not.

Unlocker programs.
Nix - didn't even try, locking was not the problem.

Renaming all the files and folders to "1" in attempt to get below the limit.
Nix ... I had too many folders deep and renaming stopped working at some level.

RD /S from elevated command.
Nix

Java program claiming abilities.
Nix

Map the folder to virtual drive and work from there.
Unknown because next solution worked.

Here is the winner - very simple. (lost track of who gave it)

If you have Vista or Win7 you're all set to go, or you're on XP then you need to download the Windows Resource Kit Tools installer. Basically you just need to have robocopy.

Make an empty folder say C:\temp

(go to elevated command prompt)
Then use robocopy to copy it to the folder that you can't delete say C:\TooDeep

robocopy C:\temp C:\TooDeep /E /MIR
("TooDeep" is the first folder in the path. Be sure to leave space between /e and /mir)

The /MIR option makes robocopy mirror temp onto TooDeep, or in other words deleting extra files and folders.

Vista/Win7 No Boot – Not Even Safe Mode

It first presents the nice splash screen asking about language and keyboard layout, and then after clicking "Next" it asks you for your product key. It is at this point that you can access a truly excellent feature of setup, obviously intended to troubleshoot a failed installation, but also VERY handy to administer a system that is on the fritz. By pressing SHIFT-F10, Setup runs "cmd", and drops you to a command prompt that is running with SYSTEM privileges.

RTM of Vista keeps the useful trick of hitting SHIFT-F10 during Setup
Summary: At the product key screen do SHIFT-F10

Additional:
Bootlog:
Press F8 key during bootup, select "Enable boot logging"
"Creates a file, ntbtlog.txt, that lists all the drivers that are installed
during startup and that might be useful for advanced troubleshooting."

Recovery Discs:
If you do not have Vista or Win7 Install discs, you can get the "recovery" discs here.