Video recording of tests

One of the features of Test Edition is to capture video of the test machine.   This helps developer understand the issue better & debug faster.  To achieve this, you must have a test setting where video recording is turned on (see how).  You can also control the max length of video to be collected in test settings.

When a test is loaded in Microsoft Test Runner with that test setting, video recording will automatically be captured between the time you Start & End test.  The video file will be added to the bug you file AND with the test results. 

Prerequisite: For this functionality to work you need to have Windows Media Encoder on your machine.  To install Windows Media Encoder for any operating system use following steps:

1. Go to the following link and follow the instructions on that page: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=135985.  Note that you must download & install 32-bit version of Windows Media Encoder even if you have 64 bit operating system

2. If you are running Vista or Windows 2008 server or Win7 as the operating system, you must also install a support update using the following link: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=154736.

3. (Windows 2008 Server only) If you are running Windows 2008 server as the operating system, you must install Desktop Experience using the Server Manager. For more information about this, view the following link: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=154635.    Note: After installing the Desktop Experience, you must restart your computer.

Known issue: If you only install Windows Media Encoder, but forget to install the support update, Microsoft Test and Lab Manager may crash when you try to start a test case in Test runner.  Installing the support update can resolve the issue (follow the instructions in “More information” section of the link to see if the correct updates are present on your machine).  

Suresh Budhiraja, Senior Program Manager, Visual Studio Team System