Skip to Content

Free TUAW iPhone app -- try it now!
AOL Tech

SoftwareSupport posts

Filed under: Business, Developer, Internet, Text, Utilities, Windows, E-mail, Productivity, Microsoft, Freeware, Open Source

Panic Button - support help for the clueless

Panic ButtonRunning the risk of making assumptions about our readership, I'd venture to guess that most of the people reading this blog have been in a position of having to support some of their less computer-savvy friends and relatives with the use of Windows and software in general. If you've ever been in that position, you probably understand the frustration the creator of Panic Button was experiencing when they decided to make this program.

Panic Button is a simple program that sits in a user's system tray innocuously, doing nothing. Where it becomes useful is at the moment where the computer displays an error message that is bewildering to the user. Rather than clicking OK or Cancel on the error and continuing on until they run into more trouble then calling you up and saying "I got some kind of error, I'm not sure what it said. Was it important?", the user simply clicks the Panic Button in the system tray while the error message is on the screen. It takes a screenshot of the error message, then offers the user a simply dialog to type out a brief description of what they were trying to do, and what problem they might be experiencing. When the user clicks Send, the screenshot and message get automatically emailed to a pre-determined email address.

It's so slick and just makes sense.

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio