Best Free Screen Session Recorder
These utilities are normally used for effectively making movies of computer screens. Such utilities are really useful in tech support, product documentation, presentations, or simply showing someone how to do something.
Product suggestions include Wink, Windows Media Encoder, AVI Screen Classic, iCord, and Krut recorder. Note that iCord is still in beta, and appears to have been abandoned as it has not been updated since 2003, and has the odd requirement of needing to change your screen resolution to 800x600.
Jing, which is made by the same people who make Camtasia Studio (but is presently free), puts a little icon on the top of your screen and allows you to take screen snapshots and make screen recordings that record to .swf format. The result can then be saved to your local machine, an FTP server, or put on screencast.com (100 meg free). I've started using this at work and it is amazing! Allows for audio while you record too.
I tried each and they all work fine. I liked Wink most because of its ease of use, great flexibility, and powerful annotation features. Wink also allows audio to be embedded in the presentation, allowing you to narrate the viewer through a series of steps. It only produces movies in Flash or executable file formats, though. Wink is freeware for Windows 98 and later.
If you need AVI format then Windows Media Encoder V9 will do the job elegantly.
Wink
Website: http://www.debugmode.com/wink/
Download page: http://www.debugmode.com/wink/download.php
Author: Satish Kumar S
Current version: 2.0 build 1050
Version date: 2007
License: Free
Download File size: 3.1 MB
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 98 – Vista or various Linux distributions
Additional Software Required: Adobe Flash plugin
64 bit version available: Untested
Portable version available: No, but can be run from a USB drive.
Non-English languages supported:
Other relevant information: Vista support is rumored
Windows Media Encoder
Website: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx
Download page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5691ba02-e496-465a-bba9-b2f1182cdf24&displaylang=en
Author: Microsoft
Current version: 1.0
Version date: 1-JUL-2003
License: Free
Download File size: 9.5 MB
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 2000 - Vista
64 bit version available: Yes; separate version
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: None
Other relevant information: Vista Support via hotfix KB929182
AVI Screen Classic
Website: http://www.bobyte.com/
Download page: http://www.bobyte.com/AviScreen/DownloadC.asp
Author: Bobyte Software
Current version: 1.3
Version date: 12-MAY-2005
License: Free
Download File size: 699 KB
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 95 - Vista
64 bit version available: Untested
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: Unknown; unlikely
Other relevant information: Commercial version available
iCord
Website: http://sourceforge.net/projects/icord/
Download page: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=87787
Author: Laura McDonald & Robert Sanders
Current version: 1.0.0-beta7
Version date: 12-AUG-2003
License: Freeware
Download File size: 606 KB
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 95 - XP
64 bit version available: Untested
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: Unknown
Camstudio
Website: http://www.camstudio.org
Download page: http://www.camstudio.org/CamStudio20.exe
Author: Unknown
Current version: 2.0
Version date: 2007
License: Freeware – GPL Open Source
Download File size: 1.33MB
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 98 - XP
64 bit version available:: Untested
Portable aersion available: No
Non-English languages supported: Yes, but not fully functional yet
Other relevant information: Vista workaround listed on support forums
Krut
Website: http://sourceforge.net/projects/krut
Download page: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=129468
Author: Jonas Ostby
Current version: 0.9.2
Version date: 17-JAN-2007
License: Freeware - GPL
Download File size: 4.80 MB
Operating Systems Supported: Windows & Linux & Mac
Additional Software Required: Java Runtime Engine – www.java.com
64 bit version available: Untested
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: Unknown
Jing
Website: http://www.jingproject.com
Download page: http://download.techsmith.com/jing/windows/jing_setup.exe
Author: TechSmith
Current version: 1.5.8107
Version date: 2008
License: Free
Download File size: 4.86 MB
Operating Systems Supported: Windows XP-Vista & Mac
Additional Software Required: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0
64 bit version available: Unknown
Portable version available: Unknown
Non-English languages supported: Unknown
Other relevant information: Also offers 100mb file hosting on screencast.com
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Windows Media Encoder does not support Vista. They offer a fix to try and help, but it doesn't stay running for long. I tested it on my machine and it worked once, and then crashed and never recorded another session. After that, I restored my disk image to rid my system of the cancer of instability.
1. Camstudio
2. AVI Screen Classic
Although Wink is brilliantly easy to use and very flexible in itself the shortcoming it has for me is that I have been unable to convert its output swf files to anything that youtube can accept. I've tried using both Super and ffmpeg. There might be a 'magic' combination of settings for one or both of the programs that produces the results I need; I can't find it.
For games screen session I recommend Wegame as a great free alternative to FRAPS.
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