Table of Contents
Contents for WinBug Help

WinBug is a tool you can use to quickly create bug reports that are specially formatted to help us process them efficiently.

To learn how to use Windows Help, press F1

About...

WinBug

Using WinBug...

Installing

Creating a bug report

Including additional files with your report

Saving your report

Answers to common questions...

When should I report a bug?

Should I send multiple bugs in one report?

What should I do with suggestions?


About WinBug

WinBug is a Windows-based application designed to help you create detailed problem reports for beta products quickly and easily. There were two primary goals in its design:

I. Make it easier to create a detailed problem report

Bug templates, AUTOEXEC.BAT  and CONFIG.SYS files, PKZIP, etc.

If you have been involved with a beta before, you have probably heard of most of these. If you have not, how should you go about reporting bugs you find in a beta release? What kind of information do we need from you to best reproduce and fix the problems you report?

With WinBug all you need to do is fill in the fields that apply to your hardware, then tell us about the problem in the "Create Bug Report" window. If you have access to a CompuServe account or send your reports via floppy disk, you can also choose to include any additional files you think will be helpful for us to fix your bug. WinBug will even compress the report for you when you are done to save upload time.

If you do not have access to a CompuServe account, you can choose to create a text report that you can print our and FAX or send to us in the mail. This report will also be organized in a way which will help us expedite the processing of your report.

After you have created your first report, all you need to do to create subsequent reports is fill in the fields in the "Create Bug Report" screen with the description of your problem and choose Save. All your personal and hardware information is saved in an INI file so you do not have to enter it in again unless you change your configuration. If you do, just choose "Update Site Information" and update the fields that need to be changed.

II. Helping us better process the bugs you report.

WinBug creates files that are specifically designed to help us more efficiently process your reports. One of the bottlenecks we run into when processing reports is that, at best, all most people see for an example is an empty bug template or a report posted by a fellow member. There are no set guidelines for the format of these reports so we get quite a variety. This tends to slow down the process of entering them into our development/testing databases.

Internally at Microsoft it is also required that reports to be in a specific format for those databases. WinBug creates reports that can be entered quickly into our databases and do not require modification. This helps speed your report to the people who can fix the problem and includes the information they most often require.

We hope that you find WINBUG.EXE a helpful tool in generating your reports!


Installing WinBug

You can run WINBUG.EXE off the floppy disk shipped in your beta kit, but you will receive the best performance by running off of your hard disk. To install on your hard disk, create a new directory and copy the following files to that directory:

WINBUG.EXE

WINBUG10.DLL

WINBUG.DAT

WINBUG.HLP

You can run either from Windows File Manager or you can create an icon for WinBug using Program Manager.

Creating an icon for WinBug


Creating an icon for WinBug

You can create a new icon for WinBug in Program Manager by taking the following steps:

1	Open the group window that you want to add the WinBug icon.

2	From the File menu, choose New.

3	From the New Program Object dialog box, select the Program Item option, and then choose the OK button.

4	In the Description field, enter "WinBug"

5	In the Command Line field enter the path and filename where you copied WINBUG.EXE (example : C:\WINBUG\WINBUG.EXE).

6	In the Working Directory field, enter the same directory from Command Line (in this example: C:\WINBUG).

7	Choose the OK button. A new icon should appear in your group.

You can also create the icon by clicking and dragging the WINBUG.EXE file from File Manager to the group where you want the icon created.

Installing WinBug


Creating a bug report with WinBug
Creating a bug report using WinBug

There are three steps involved in using WinBug to create and send a report to us:

First, you need to tell us about yourself and the computer you are running the beta software on. The Contact, Hardware, Peripherals, and Network screens are where you can enter that information.

Step 1	: Entering your site information

Once you have told us about yourself and your hardware in Step 1, you can tell us about the problem you encountered via the Create Report screen.

Step 2	: Describing the problem

After you have told us about the problem, you are ready to save you report and send it to us by uploading it to the CompuServe forum for the beta, sending to us by mail or by FAX.

Step 3	: Saving your bug report


Step 1 : Entering your site information

When you first start WinBug, you will be taken to the first of four screens where you tell us about yourself and your hardware/software. Fill out each of the fields that apply to you and clicking on the "Next" button to switch to the next screen. Keep in mind that you are not restricted to what is available in the list boxes, you may type anything you want in the editable portion of the list boxes if what you are looking for is not in the list.

The first four screens you will see and need to fill in are:

Contact Information

Hardware Information

Peripheral Information

Network Information

After these screens you have filled out all the information that will be consistent from one report to the next. When you exit WinBug, this information will be saved in the WINBUG.INI file so the next time you load the program you will not have to re-enter it.

Now you are ready to tell us about the problem you encountered.

Step 2: Describing the problem


Step 2 : Describing the problem - The Create Report screen

The pieces of information we need from you that will be different for each bug you report are included in the "Create Report" screen. Once you fill these in, you will be ready to save your first report:

Reproducible

Beta Version

Severity

Title

Problem Statement

Steps to Reproduce

Now it's time to save our report...

Step 3 : Saving your bug report


Step 3 : Saving your bug report

WinBug allows you to save your report in one of two formats - CompuServe/Disk or Text.

CompuServe/Disk Format (*.CIS)

Text Format (*.TXT)

You can also reload the information you have saved in your report.

Opening a saved report


Reproducible

Tell us if you could reproduce the problem after it happened. If you can reproduce it easily, choose "Always", if it takes a few tries to get it to happen, choose "Sometimes". If you cannot reproduce the  problem, choose "Not Repro".


Beta Version

Enter the build number for the current beta version you are running if you know it. If not, just enter "Beta 1", "Beta 2", etc., for the release you are using.


Severity

How severe was the problem? A severity level of 1 indicates that your system hung or you lost some data. Severity 2 means you are not losing data or hanging, but things are not functioning correctly. Use a severity level of 3 if the problem is cosmetic or minor. Suggestions for program enhancements can be reported as a bug with a severity of 4 and will be forwarded to program management.


Title

Enter a short (less than 60 character) description of your problem. We use this as a quick reference when we enter your report into our database.


Problem Statement

This is where you tell us about your problem. Give us as much detail about the problem as you can and any additional software that was running when the problem occurred. Please do not paste any large files (you can add them via the "Select files to include with your report" dialog instead) or diagnostic (MSD) files or other program generated information into this field. We will contact you directly if we need to get more information for a particular report.


Steps To Repro

If there is a specific sequence of steps you need to take to reproduce your bug, list them here using a Step1, Step2, etc., format.  This will help our repro-testers when they attempt to reproduce the bug you countered.

Example:

Step 1 : Load File Manager

Step 2 : Click on the icon for the "A" drive.

...etc.


CompuServe/Disk Reports

When you choose this option, you will generate a *.CIS file which you can upload to CompuServe. The *.CIS files include the information you gave us about your configuration and your problem and any supplemental files you include with your report via the "Select files to include with your report" dialog box that is displayed when you first select this option. When you click "OK", WinBug will then:

- collect all the files you chose to include

- collect the information about your problem

- archive all bug information and included files into one file

- compress the report file (*.CIS) to save upload time (similar to PKZIP).

The *.CIS file which is created is what you can upload to CompuServe and will have the information we need to look into your problem.

See Also...

Selecting files to include with your report


Text format (*.TXT) bug reports

When you select this option, a text file (*.TXT) will be created which will include:

- your configuration information

- the information about your problem

- AUTOEXEC.BAT (if we found it)

- CONFIG.SYS (if we found it)

- SYSTEM.INI (if we found it)

- PROTOCOL.INI (if we found it)

You can then print out the report via the MS-DOS PRINT command and FAX or mail us the report.

NOTE: All the information about your bug will be save to a file with the same name, but an INF extension (i.e., if you create BUG1.TXT, BUG1.INF will automatically be created and can be loaded into WinBug via the "Load" option of the "File" menu.


*.INF data files

When you create a text (*.TXT) report, the information you gave us about your hardware and the problem itself are automatically saved in an *.INF file.

These *.INF files are formatted so you can reload an old text report into WinBug by choosing the corresponding *.INF file for the report (for example: if you saved a report as "TED1.TXT", you can load the information back into WinBug by loading "TED1.INF" which is the data from that report.


Upload your .CIS  file to CompuServe

This topic is not yet completed.


Send your .CIS file on a floppy disk

If you do not have access to CompuServe, you can still send us a CompuServe format report by putting in on a floppy and sending it to the address listed in your release notes.


FAX or mail us your *.TXT file

If you do not have access to CompuServe and do not want to send a report to us via disk, you should choose the "Text file" option


Including files with your report
Including additional files with your report

When you choose to save a file using the CompuServe/Disk format, the "Select files to send with your report" dialog will appear on the screen. This dialog allows you to select which files from your system are included in the .CIS file you generate as your bug report.

You may notice some files are already listed in the "Files currently to be sent with report" list box at the bottom of the dialog. These include your AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, WIN.INI, SYSTEM.INI and PROTOCOL.INI files if we located them on your system. These files are ones we need for each report. If, for some reason, they are not in the list box, please add them so they are included with your report.

Adding a file to the list

Removing a file from the list


Adding a file to the list

Use the "Drives" and "Directories" controls to find the location of the file you want to add. Highlight the file from the "Files" list box and click on the "Add" button. The file should appear in the list box at the bottom of the dialog.


Removing a file from the list

Highlight the file you wish to remove in the "Files currently to be sent with report" list and click the "Remove" button. The file should no longer be in the list.


Directories list box

This shows the current directory that you can select files from in the "Files" list box. Choose the directory you would like to select files from here.


Files list box

This the list of files available in the directory you have selected. You can select one or several files and click on the "Add" button to add them to your report.


Drives list box

You can choose the drive you wish to select files from here.


Files currently to be sent with report list box

This list contains the files that will be added to your report when you save it.

AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, WIN.INI, SYSTEM.INI and PROTOCOL.INI are initially added if they are located on your default drive.


Done button

When you are satisfied with the list of files in the "Files currently to be sent with report" list box, click on this button to save your report to disk.


Cancel button

Clicking on this button will cancel generation of the report and return you to the Create Report screen.


Help button

You can click on this button to get this help screen.


Add button

Click on this button to add all files selected in the "Files" list box to the list of files to be added to your report.


Remove button

Click on this button to remove the currently selected file in the "Files currently to be sent with report" list box.


CompuServe or floppy disk report (*.CIS) files

These files are created when you choose the CompuServe/Disk option to create your report. They are in a compressed archive file format which contains all the information you provided about your configuration and problem in addition to any additional files you included via the "Select files to include with report" dialog. These files can be uploaded to the appropriate CompuServe forum or sent to the beta program via floppy disk. This is our preferred format for reports.

NOTE: The *.CIS files are *ALREADY COMPRESSED*! Please do not use another ZIP or ARC utility on this file because the file will not get much smaller and it will be detrimental to our ability to process your report quickly when we receive it.


Contact Information

This screen will ask for information we can use to get in touch with you about the problems you report. The "Primary Contact Information" section is information about the person reporting the bug. If you have a second person that you work with on the beta that is familiar with the problem as well, please include their Name, Phone Number, and CompuServe ID or Internet address so we can reach them in case you are unavailable. You can reach the next screen (Hardware Information).by clicking on the "Next" button.


Hardware Information

This is where you tell us about the computer on which you are running the beta software. Fill in the fields that apply to your machine. It is likely that some fields will not apply. In that event, simply enter "N/A" or leave the entry blank. The "Next" button will take you to the "Peripheral Information" screen.


Peripheral Information

This dialog is where you tell us about your mouse, printer, multimedia hardware, and any additional peripherals you have attached to your computer. You can list any additional peripherals that do not have a field the screen in the "Additional Peripherals" field at the bottom of the screen.


Network Information

Here is where you can tell us about your network hardware and software if you are running on a network.


Opening a report
Opening a saved report

You can use the File/Open option to load information from a saved report back into WinBug if you need to. WinBug creates three types of files, two of which can be re-opened. One of the readable files is created no matter which type of report you create so there is always a way to reload information from an old report.

These are the types of files that WinBug creates and what you will be able to do with them:

*.CIS files

You may open these directly and all information will be loaded, including the list of files you chose to include with your report. WinBug will have to decompress the file first so this may take a while with larger files.

*.INF files

These are created when you save a Text style bug report. For example, if you save a text report with the name "FRED.TXT",  a file named "FRED.INF" will be created in the same directory. The INF file contains your bug report in a format that WinBug can easily read if you wish to reload that report. The *.TXT files WinBug creates cannot be reloaded.

*.TXT files

These are designed to be printed out and sent via mail or FAX, but are not designed to be reloaded into WinBug. Choose the *.INF file that WinBug created to reload the report information for a given report.


When should I report a bug?

Answer: Whenever you find one.

Please be sure to report *ALL* bugs that you find in the product - do not assume anything like "they must have found this one already". We may have not and when we receive more than one report of the same problem, it is much easier for us to see a trend, track it down and get it fixed.


Should I send multiple bugs in one report?

Answer: No.

Please use a separate file for each bug report if at all possible.

Multiple reports in the same file take time to sort out and separate and it can add days to the time it takes for your bug(s) to get to the right developer. Separate reports make it much easier for us to route your bug reports.

If the bug deals with a third-party application (Corel Draw, Microsoft Access, Word Perfect, etc.), please put start the Title field with "APP:".


What should I do with suggestions?

Answer: Send them in!

Your suggestions are valuable to us and help shape our products, both present and future. You can use WinBug to report suggestions by reporting them as bugs with the Severity (in the Create Report screen) set to "4 - Suggestion".

Be sure to make suggestions anytime in the beta cycle. Even if we cannot incorporate it into the current version of the product we will want to consider it for future versions. Many of the features in our products are from customer suggestions that we were not able to implement in the current version.


*.TXT files

These files are created when you choose to save your bug report as "Text" format. They are formatted ASCII text files which you can view with a text editor. If you cannot access CompuServe, create one of these files, print it out (you can just use the MS-DOS PRINT command) and FAX or mail the report to the address given when your report has been created.