Windows7How

Windows 7 – Action Center, Problem Steps Recorder, DVDs Burner

November 24, 2009

We are all aware of all the coverage that Microsoft’s latest operating system (OS) is generating; you can’t even look at a tech-oriented website without seeing some story related to Windows 7. It is everywhere. However, not much has been printed on the tools within Windows 7 which make it easier to use. Most of the stories we see deal with the new Desktop or the new Taskbar – even the new ‘libraries’ feature has been given more focus. Here we will look into the new tools and see which of these you may find to be very useful – if you plan to upgrade. If not, at least you can become familiar with the OS everyone you know is adopting.

Right out of the box we start with the new Windows 7 Action Center. This is a centralized management applet which allows you to address your Windows 7 security, troubleshooting, updating, and recovery operations. With previous Windows systems, there were several separate applets which controlled these functions. With Windows 7, this Control Panel applet does it all for you. It also allows you to view performance information, manage your User Account Control (UAC), see any security and/or maintenance messages from the OS, and so much more. The idea for this actually started with Windows Vista in the form of the Security Center. A neat feature of the Action Center is that it will reside in your System Tray (next to the clock on the Taskbar), so that you can easily access it and see if there are any system messages for you to read. Even those messages can be turned on or off from the Action Center, giving you ultimate control of how you gain OS information – in other words, you can stop the system from bugging you about various updates or security conflicts.

Another very useful tool in the Windows 7 arsenal is the ability to record actions taken on the way to a problem. It is called the Problem Steps Recorder (PSR), and it will record every keystroke, click of the mouse, warning messages, etc. This is done to simplify troubleshooting issues. It is a true godsend to IT departments as they can look at the data provided by this applet and see exactly where something went wrong. It will place all of the data it records onto a MHTML page that also adds screenshots of the procedure to the data recorded. Of course, you have to initialize it as it will not record what you do not want it to; just go to the Start menu search box or launch the command prompt and type “psr.exe”. Once it is up and running, just click on ‘record’ to begin recording the steps which caused your problem. What a boon that will be for the IT people you know and may need to help you.

Probably one of the favorite tools added to Windows 7 will be the native ISO burner. Yes, for the first time in Windows history, you no longer need a third-party application to burn CDs and DVDs from an ISO file on your system. ISO’s are often used to distribute software, so this is a very handy tool for creating install CDs and DVDs. And, it is very simple to use. All that is needed it to download the ISO and double-click on it. Windows will launch a Burn Disc Image dialog box, select your destination drive, and click ‘Burn’. This tool also works with the IMG file extension, but be careful as there are third-party applications which use this for something other than disc images. This is a handy tool that will also save you some money!

So far, we have seen three new tools to the Windows 7 OS. Each of them is very useful and centralizes functions which would otherwise need two, three or four applets to do the same thing – if it was even possible in your previous OS. In Part II, we will see even more nifty tools which Microsoft has added to improve your experience with Windows 7.

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Tags: Action Center, cd burning software, dvd burner software, iso burning software, libraries, MHTML, Problem Steps Recorder, psr, Security Center, taskbat, uac, upgrade, User Account Control