Tips on Capturing Troubleshooting Information

When gathering information on computer problems that will be presented to your computer support team, it is important that the information be accurate and complete. Here are some techniques that you can use to make this easier.

These procedures are for Windows 2000, Windows XP and later Microsoft operating systems. Some of them may work in other operating systems, but we make no distinction of that here.

Capturing the Contents of an Error Dialog

You can capture the contents of an error dialog by simply pressing CTRL+C. The error dialog must be 'in focus' (i.e. the active window). To bring the error dialog into focus, just click on the title bar (the strip at the top that's blue in the default Windows color scheme). Now the text of the error message should be copied to the clipboard and can be pasted into any application, such as notepad, Word, or an email.

Sample Error Dialog

Sample Pasted Text

Capturing a 'Screen Shot'

You can capture a picture of your entire screen onto the clipboard by pressing the 'PrtScn' key, or the active window by pressing Alt+PrtScn(1). This key is usually located in top row of keys near the right hand side of your keyboard, but on some laptop keyboards it may be located low on the right hand side. On laptops it may require the use of a 'Fn' (function) key, usually indicated by being colored blue.

Once you have the image on the clip board, it can be pasted into many different programs. Frequently you can past it directly into your Email program, for example Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Outlook Express and email it to your computer support team. If your email program is one that doesn't support this, for instance Outlook Web Access or Pine, you will have to past the image into an image editor such as Microsoft Paint first. Once it's pasted into your image editor you have to save it, preferably in the JPEG file format, then attach it to an email.

(1) To type Alt+PrtScn, hold down the Alt key then press the PrtScn key and then release them both. This is similar to using the shift key to obtain a capital letter.

Related Links:

Ask Leo! - What's a Screen Shot, and how do I make one?
Ask Leo! - Can I avoid retyping error messages when I need to report them?
Microsoft - Most Error Messages Can Be Pasted to the Clipboard as Text
Microsoft - How to Capture Screen Shots in Windows Using the Print Screen Key