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Hows

How's how? Hows knows.

Hows records what you click and turns it into an illustrated step-by-step guide. It is a modern, open-source successor to the Windows Steps Recorder (psr.exe), which Microsoft has deprecated.

Hows needs no account and sends no telemetry. After install, the running app does not open network connections. The NSIS and MSI installers download WebView2 from Microsoft when it is missing. Hows does not upload guides to a Hows cloud; a folder synced by OneDrive or similar can still copy files you save there. Typed characters are not stored as keyboard input, only the fact that you typed and where. Guides are saved in an open, documented .steps format. The app exports them as a single HTML file or a PDF; the command line adds Markdown and JSON, either as a clean how-to guide or as a bug report with technical metadata.

Windows first. Built with Tauri 2, Rust, and Svelte 5. MIT licensed.

Documentation: user guide and reference

What it does

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+R (or the button, or the notification area icon) and work as usual.
2. Every click, double-click, right-click, and shortcut with Ctrl, Alt, or Win becomes a step with a screenshot and a readable sentence such as Click “Save” in “Notepad”. Scrolling in one window and direction stays one step until you pause, and the sentence names that window and how far you scrolled, for example Scroll down 3 in “Documents”. Typing stays one step until you pause.
3. Stop with the same shortcut. Review the steps, edit step text, reorder or delete steps, and annotate screenshots with rectangles, arrows, circles, pen, highlighter, blur, and text.
4. Export: HTML (one self-contained file), PDF (A4 or US Letter), or the .steps file to edit later. HTML and PDF use your style, your accent color, and the embedded Hows font. A small “Created with Hows” line ends each HTML export and sits in the footer of every PDF page; you can turn it off in the settings. steps-cli also writes Markdown with images and JSON.

The interface and generated step text are available in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch. On first start, Hows follows the Windows display language; you can switch languages in the settings at any time.

How it compares

	Hows	Windows Steps Recorder	OpenSteps	BetterStepsRecorder	Folge	Scribe / Tango
License	MIT	proprietary, deprecated	MIT	MIT	proprietary	proprietary
Runs	local after install	local	local	local	local	cloud
Keyboard	never plain text; shortcuts only, typing shown as “Type your text”	key names in step text	typing detected, characters not stored	per-step metadata	yes	yes
Step text	deterministic templates from UI Automation	raw UI Automation text	click context	click context	manual/automatic	AI-generated
File format	.steps (ZIP with guide.json and PNGs), documented	.mht	session.json plus PNGs	project-specific	proprietary	cloud
Export	HTML, PDF, Markdown, JSON; guide and bug-report mode	MHT	Markdown, HTML	RTF, HTML, ODT, Obsidian	PDF, Word, PowerPoint, HTML, Markdown, JSON, SCORM, GIF	PDF, HTML, links
Annotations	rectangle, arrow, circle, pen, highlighter, blur, text; non-destructive	none	rectangle, arrow, highlight, numbers	text editing	yes	yes
Scripted guides	steps-cli from-script builds guides without a desktop	no	no	no	no	API in paid tiers
Code signing	not yet	signed	not yet	N/A	yes	N/A

Sources: Microsoft on the Steps Recorder deprecation, the linked project pages, Scribe pricing, Tango pricing.

Install

Hows 0.1.0 is an early alpha. Download it from the Releases page. The builds are unsigned, so Windows SmartScreen warns on first start. You can also build Hows yourself (below).

• Install Hows: which file to pick, WebView2, updates, and removal.
• The SmartScreen warning: why it appears and how to continue.

Build

Requirements: Windows 10/11, Rust stable (1.88 or newer), Node.js 22, and the Tauri prerequisites (WebView2 ships with Windows 11).

cd app
npm ci
npm run tauri build

Output	Path
NSIS installer	app/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/nsis/*-setup.exe
MSI	app/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/msi/*.msi
hows.exe	app/src-tauri/target/release/hows.exe

npm run tauri build writes hows.exe. The portable distribution is the ZIP from scripts/release/pack-portable.ps1: hows.exe, LICENSE, and THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md. The release workflow publishes that ZIP and does not publish hows.exe on its own.

For a development window with hot reload: npm run tauri dev.

Command line

steps-cli works on every platform and needs no desktop capture. It exports existing guides and builds new ones from a JSON script, which is handy for CI, documentation pipelines, and AI agents.

# Demo guide plus every export format
cargo run --manifest-path core/Cargo.toml -p steps-cli -- demo -o ./out

# Export a .steps file (html | pdf | markdown | json; --mode sop | bug-report)
cargo run --manifest-path core/Cargo.toml -p steps-cli -- \
  export guide.steps --format pdf -o guide.pdf

# Build a guide from a script; --html without a path writes guide.html next to it
cargo run --manifest-path core/Cargo.toml -p steps-cli -- \
  from-script docs/examples/agent-steps.en.json -o guide.steps --html

All commands and the script format: Command line.

Privacy

After install, the running app does not open network connections. If Microsoft's WebView2 runtime is missing (it ships with Windows 11), the NSIS and MSI installers download it from Microsoft. The portable ZIP does not. Hows does not upload guides to a Hows cloud. The .steps file on your disk holds your steps, usually each with its original screenshot, and the details Windows provided: the window title, app name, and UI element that was clicked.

Recording starts from the shortcut, the button, or the notification area. Hows has no consent step in the app for other people, and Windows shows no screen-recording permission dialog for these hooks. Recording or sharing someone else's screen, workplace, call, or chat is your responsibility.

Exports from the app use guide mode: the title, step texts, and screenshots, without the separate technical fields. A step text can still name a visible button or field and the window title, which in a browser is the page title. The bug-report mode (steps-cli export --mode bug-report) adds window titles, element details, click positions, timestamps, and the operating system. It adds the Windows version only when the file contains one, and recordings from the app don't for now. Screenshots show whatever was on screen and can contain private data, so check them and the step texts before sharing; the blur tool hides sensitive regions. The MIT license covers Hows, not the captured interface in those screenshots or titles.

Exports go to your Documents folder by default. If that folder is synced by OneDrive, the export sheet says so before you export and lets you pick another folder. Details: Privacy.

Known limitations

• Builds are not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen warns on first start.
• Recording works on Windows only. On Linux, the app runs with a stub recorder and the CLI works fully; macOS is untested.
• Steps come from UI Automation. Apps with a poor accessibility tree (some games, remote desktops, custom-drawn UIs) get generic step texts.
• The app exports HTML, PDF, and .steps; Markdown and JSON need steps-cli for now.
• The browser extension for richer web steps (extension/) is planned but empty.

Repository layout

core/        Rust workspace: capture, i18n, session, store, export, cli
app/         Tauri 2 + Svelte 5 desktop app
extension/   browser extension (planned)
docs/        user documentation (en, de), file format and examples
scripts/     smoke test and documentation checks

Contributing

Bug reports, incorrect step text, and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md. Security issues: SECURITY.md. Changes: CHANGELOG.md.

License

MIT. The license covers Hows, not the content of screenshots or step texts in a guide. Third-party components and their licenses: THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.