Integrate PSR in a VB.NET application

Since PSR (Problem Steps Recorder) cannot be considered a widely used tool, I was thinking of integrating it in my VB.NET application.

It could be a useful tool for understanding how users arrive to problems and to reproduce issues and errors. More information about PSR: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/patricka/archive/2010/01/04/using-the-secret-windows-7-problem-step-recorder-to-create-step-by-step-screenshot-documents.aspx

I think that integrating it in an application will help users to use it even if maybe they don't know it exists and help the maintainer to have more information about how a user gets problems.

Is there somebody who has already done such a thing, possibly using VB.NET?

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

This post got no interest (and only 23 views :( ), so I spent some time to write my own class to integrate PSR in my application.

I had to adapt my code (it is a part of a bigger project) and I had to translate comments from Italian to English, but the following should work (or require minimal changes):

Public Class clsPSRDemo
Private WithEvents prcPSR As New Process
Private i32TimeSpent As Int32
Private bEventHandled As Boolean
Friend Event Exited As EventHandler

''' <summary>
''' Tracks User action using PSR and send the file obtained through email
''' </summary>
''' <remarks>AA20140801 - ☮ Andrea Antonangeli per © Octet - Ingegneria dei Sistemi - S.r.l.</remarks>
Friend Function TrackActions() As String
    Dim OSVersion As Version = Environment.OSVersion.Version
    Dim Win7Version As Version = Version.Parse("6.1.7600")
    Dim strFilePSR As String = My.Computer.FileSystem.SpecialDirectories.MyDocuments & "\MyProject\PSRFile" & Format(Now, "yyyyMMdd_HHmmss") & ".zip"   'Change this depending on your needs
    Const i32Timeout As Int32 = 600000 '(10 minuti)
    Const i32SleepInterval As Int32 = 200   '(0,2 secondi)

    i32TimeSpent = 0
    bEventHandled = False
    Try
        'Check Windows version
        If OSVersion.CompareTo(Win7Version) < 0 Then
            MessageBox.Show("You must have Windows 7 or newer", "Unusable function", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation)
            Return "Err: SO too old"
            Exit Function
        End If
        Dim strPSRPath As String = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.System) & "\psr.exe "
        'Check if psr.exe exists (should always be true, but who knows...)
        If IO.File.Exists(strPSRPath) = False Then
            MessageBox.Show("Could not find file 'psr.exe' in folder " & Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.System), "Funzione non utilizzabile", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)
            Return "Err: PSR not found"
            Exit Function
        End If
        'Start PSR and check event when finished
        prcPSR.StartInfo.FileName = strPSRPath
        prcPSR.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = True
        prcPSR.StartInfo.Arguments = " /start /maxsc 50 /exitonsave 1 /output " & strFilePSR
        prcPSR.EnableRaisingEvents = True
        prcPSR.Start()
    Catch ex As Exception
        MessageBox.Show("Error executing PSR." & ex.Message, "Retry.")
        Return "Err: PSR excepion " & ex.Message
    End Try
    'Wait for "Exited" event for the time specified in i32Timeout (10 minutes)
    Do While Not bEventHandled
        i32TimeSpent += i32SleepInterval
        If i32TimeSpent > i32Timeout Then
            MessageBox.Show("Timeout (10 minutes). We stop tracking", "Operazion not completed", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation)
            prcPSR.CloseMainWindow()
            prcPSR.Close()
            Return "Err: Timeout"
            Exit Function
        End If
        Application.DoEvents()
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(i32SleepInterval)
    Loop
    MessageBox.Show("Thanks, your steps have been recorded and now we are sending them through email", "Operation completed", MessageBoxButtons.OKCancel, MessageBoxIcon.Information, MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button1)
    Dim strMsgUscita As String = String.Empty
    Try
        Dim MailTicket As New clsMandaMail
        With MailTicket
            .Mittente = frmOpzioni.prpMailMittente
            .MandoCC = .Mittente    'Metto il mittente in copia 
            .MandoA = "supportosocrate@octet.it"
            .Soggetto = "Messaggio TAS del " & Now.ToString & " eseguito da " & objOctetLib.DimmiNomeUtente & " da computer " & objOctetLib.DimmiNomeQuestoComputer
        End With
        'La creo
        Dim mailToBeSent As New Net.Mail.MailMessage("yourUserMail@hisdomain.com", "yoursupportmail@yourdomain.it", "PSR file attached", "Check the .zip file attached")
        If Not IO.File.Exists(strFilePSR) Then
            MessageBox.Show("Il file " & strFilePSR & " was NOT found." & vbCrLf & "Check folder " & My.Computer.FileSystem.SpecialDirectories.MyDocuments & "\MyProject & and send it to support manually", "PSR file not found.", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation)
            strMsgUscita = "Err: PDR file not found"
            Return strMsgUscita
            Exit Function
        End If
        Dim PSRAttachment As New Net.Mail.Attachment(strFilePSR)
        mailToBeSent.Attachments.Add(PSRAttachment)
        'Sending
        Dim MailClient As New Net.Mail.SmtpClient("CustomerFavoriteSMTPServer")
        MailClient.UseDefaultCredentials = True
        MailClient.Send(mailToBeSent)
    Catch ex As Exception
        MessageBox.Show("Error sending mail " & ex.Message, "Error.", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation)
        strMsgUscita = "Err: mail NOT sent"
    End Try
    Return strMsgUscita
End Function

'Exited event 
Private Sub prcPSR_Exited(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles prcPSR.Exited
    bEventHandled = True
    Debug.Print("Exited at " & prcPSR.ExitTime & " code " & prcPSR.ExitCode)
End Sub  
End Class

Hope it helps if you have my same needs. Enjoy.