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Best Free Screen Session Recorder [1]

Introduction

First, a word about words: Snapshot, Screenshot, Screen Capture, Screencast, Screen Recording and Screen Session Recording. Whew! All these words or phrases refer to the capture of one (still) or many consecutive (moving) images of your computer's screen.

So just to be clear: Snapshots and Screenshots refer to one-off still captures of your screen and Gizmo's has a great review of the Best Free Screen Capture Tool [3]. This review covers the rest: Screencasts, Screen Recordings and Screen Session Recordings software. We'll stick with the term 'Screen Session Recordings' for this review.

The uses for this class of software is wide: tutorials, demos, recordings for technical support playback and review, training and more. If you want a simple product just to take a quick screen recording, with no editing and no 'knobs to twiddle,' we've got that in our roundup. If you want a substantial product that gives you control over a wide array of settings including audio and video quality, lets you edit the project after the screen recording has happened, lets you add icons and information bubbles, and can churn out the results in several different formats, we have that, too.

 

Rated Products

[4]

ActivePresenter [4]   [5]

Record the screen with capture profiles, save sessions as projects and publish them to desired output

Our Rating: 
5
License: Free (Limited features)
A lot of functionality; ability to save sessions as Projects to be returned to later; editing interface for adding text, thought bubbles and the like; ability to export to AVI, WMV, MP4, and WebM.
Editor difficult to use because users cannot link together all the individual slides that ActivePresenter creates; Smart Capture mode is a promising idea, but poorly executed; Watermarking on export in the free version.
Read full review... [5]
[9]

FlashBack Express [9]   [10]

Gives you the ability to record full screen on one or more monitors

Our Rating: 
4
License: Free (Limited features)
A lot of control over video and audio settings; can capture web cam images and integrate with the screen session; can hide desktop icons automatically during recording; outputs to AVI, or SWF or FLV Flash files; built-in YouTube and Blip.tv uploaders.
The built-in Editor Timeline is a tease: there's nothing you can edit with it unless you purchase a Standard or Pro version; no panning to follow the cursor.
Read full review... [10]
[12]

Icecream Screen Recorder [12]   [13]

An extremely simple and easy to use screen recorder to capture screen or record video

Our Rating: 
4
License: Free (Limited features)
Easy to use, Capture screenshots as well as screencasts, Record games, No watermark or time limits.
Few options, Limited editing capabilities.
Read full review... [13]
[15]

Jing [15]   [16]

Simplicity and speed are what Jing delivers for recording any window or region you select

Our Rating: 
3.5
License: Free (Limited features)
Simple to use; lightweight; quick install; ability to post directly to Screencast.com.
Almost no access to video or audio settings; only output format is SWF Flash.
Read full review... [16]

Other Screen Session Recorders

These are other free screen session recorders not rated in this review but included here for reference.

  • CamStudio [18], a freeware application for Windows that allows a user to capture video, sound, or both. It can save videos in both AVI and FLV format.
  • Istanbul [19], a lightweight application for Linux, only records videos in .ogg format.
  • Fraps [20], a Windows application for you to record games, take screenshots and run recording benchmarks but you can't record your destop session with it.
  • Wink [21], available in Windows and Linux, allows you to capture video and layer it with audio, and annotate with captions to create something like what you would see on an e-learning site.

 

Related Products and Links

You might want to check out these articles too:

 

Editor

This software review is copy-edited by Ian Richards [23]. Please help edit and improve this article by clicking here [24].

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[4] https://www.techsupportalert.com/content/activepresenter.htm-0
[5] https://www.techsupportalert.com/node/8139
[6] http://atomisystems.com/download/
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[9] https://www.techsupportalert.com/content/flashback-express.htm
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[11] http://www.flashbackrecorder.com/express
[12] https://www.techsupportalert.com/content/icecream-screen-recorder.htm-0
[13] https://www.techsupportalert.com/node/8141
[14] http://icecreamapps.com/Download-Screen-Recorder/
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[17] https://www.techsmith.com/download/jing/
[18] http://www.camstudio.org/
[19] http://live.gnome.org/Istanbul
[20] http://www.fraps.com/
[21] http://www.debugmode.com/wink/
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