A fully effective bug report is the first step in getting a bug fixed. A good bug report helps to locate the bug.

A fully effective problem report must contain:

•Information about your system.

•Your problem description with all details.

Explain how to reproduce the problem. If the problem cannot be reproduced, the chances to fix it are rather low. Analyze the error so you can describe it in a minimum number of steps.

Write a report that is complete and easy to understand. See Examples of problem reports.

•Send us all data that can help to pinpoint the problem. In case of crashes, this includes all files in your GN4 BIN folder and symbols too.

ABOUT PROBLEM REPORT TITLE

The report summary (title) helps everyone quickly review outstanding problems and find individual reports. The summary line is the most frequently and carefully read part of the report.

•Don't use the same summary for two different reports, even if they are similar.

•The summary line should describe only the problem, not the replication steps.

ABOUT PROBLEM REPORT CONTENT

Ideally you should be able to write this clearly enough for a developer to reproduce and fix the problem. Of course it is ideal if the problem is reproducible and you can write down those steps. But if you can't reproduce a problem, and try and try and still can't reproduce it, tell use about it and write the report anyway. A good programmer can often track down a problem from a good description. For some hints, see What we need to know about your system? and What we need to know about your problem?

ABOUT PROBLEM REPORT ATTACHMENTS

In case of crashes, we need your complete BIN folder and symbols too. In complicated cases we might need the database as well. See Sending User-mode dumps and Installing WER and debugging tools for Windows.

ABOUT STEPS TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM

If you found the way to reproduce the problem, write the steps one-by-one.

Important: do not describe only the results you noticed, but the real steps. For example, don't write: "when I moved the object..." as we would not know how did you move the object. Write instead "... when I dragged the object by mouse..." or "... when I press ALT+Right to move the object..."

Moreover, have in mind though that your configuration is possibly different than ours, and that can change the things very much. Give us all details you can about your system configuration.

ABOUT PROBLEM IMPACT

Don't forget to specify the problem impact: Low, Medium, High, and Urgent.