Free Screen Recording Software
Posted by Mert Erkal on Apr 24, 2008 in Blog | 13 comments
Back in November 2007, I wrote Get a Copy of Camtasia Screen Recording Video Software for Free. However, TechSmith, the developer of Camtasia Studio, has withdrawn its offer. They still encourage you to test out a free 30 day copy of the latest version, Camtasia Studio 5.
Since November 2007, I received a lot of questions about where to find free screen recording software, yet I could not allocate enough time to make a post about it. I know it is quite late, but this post is dedicated to my fellow readers who are desperately seeking for a free screen recording software since very long time.
Having said above, I must still admit that the king of screen recording software is Camtasia Studio. However it costs a bit. Nevertheless, you can start with a free screen recording software, and then upgrade to Camtasia Studio when it is affordable. Many free software are enough for beginners.
Why Should You Insist on Video and Screen Recording Software in 2008 and onwards?
As I mentioned before in How To Stand Out From The Crowd, you need to do something little consistently to stand out from the crowd. Screen recording can be one of the little things you can do in 2008 to stand out from the crowd. This is the easiest way to generate how-to type videos. If you provide good solutions to common problems by recording how to videos, you will eventually be known as an authority blogger in your blogging niche.
Video is booming in 2008! You can not miss this if you aim for higher traffic coming into your blog or website. Record, and share. That’s all!
Free Screen Recording Software
I downloaded the free version of Camtasia 3.0 after I wrote Get a Copy of Camtasia Screen Recording Video Software for Free. I am playing with it since then. I am willing to publish my own weekly videos soon.
The reason why I tell you this is that I have never used below mentioned free screen recording software before. However, I have made a broad search for you, and found the most popular and reliable (according to user comments!) free screen recording software. They are linked to websites&blogs where you can read the features and download them. Some of them also provide free Video sharing.
Here they are:
- CamStudio
- TipCam
- AutoScreenRecorder 3.0 Free
- Free Screen Recorder 2.9
- Webineria
- Freez Screen Video Capture
I hope these free recording software will satisfy your needs. Now, in return of supplying such a free software list, I kindly ask you to leave a voice message to my blog. I installed a cool little audio recording widget to my blog. You can find it down the right side of my blog, titled as “Have Your Say”. Looking forward to hear your voices!
Also please join the latest poll. You can find it just below the voice recorder widget. The question is “Do you want me to create some video tutorials on blogging?” The answers are “Yes” or “No”. Thanks in advance for your contribution!
Winxp sp2 also has a free screen recorder included, but it is *very* hard (frustrating) to get working properly.
c:\program files\windows media components\encoder\wmenc.exe
wow , this is really great recording software ,
you have any idea of a free software that can put some water-mark on the videos ??
thanks
There is another one that I think is quite good, and it’s free . Bulent’s Screen Recorder, it’s free here;
http://www.thesilver.net/downloadBSR.asp
Yet another free option is called Jing Project. It’s a pretty new application, but looks very promising. You can host your video with them if you choose or put it on your own site.
Thanks for these recommendations, I’m going to check them out. So, what’s after 2008? If we don’t jump on video immediately have we missed the boat? What is your crystal ball telling you on this one?
For my project at my internship I had to record a demonstration video so I’ve tried a lot of free software’s, for personal use there are just great!
But for my project I needed something more with a lot of options and the ability to put some quiz’s in it and so I choose for Adobe Captivate 3!
Cool Post, I did not know camtasia was now a program u had to purchase. It’s good to see several other alternatives.
Thanks for the recommendations, I haven’t used any of these, or Camtasia.
I followed your advice and downloaded Camtasia 3.0 last year, although I have yet to make use of it. Talking of video generally, I have just been reading Michael Martines (Remarkablogger) review of the Flip Video Ultra – which looks like being the must have item for video blogging (http://michaelmartine.com/2008/04/22/flip-video-ultra-video-blogging/) I’m still working up to doing a podcast! David
I’ve tried ad played a bit with CamStudio on and off but never did get any video out. Finally when Camtasia offered it free, I downloaded it and tried it a bit more.
Since then, I’ve created 2 – 3 online videos to teach/inform my customers. Am getting better at it but this free version does not work with Vista.
Thanks Mert for a great job of finding alternatives to Camtasia. I think you are right about what is going to happen this year. More and more people are going to realize that videos are effective in imparting knowledge.
People would rather watch a video than to read an article.
I have created four or five videos and I use them to train my clients on some of the aspects of health insurance.
@David: Would you like to do your first podcast with me?
@James: I did not know that this free version does not work with Vista. I still use Windows XP. Thanks for the information!
@Cherly: I did not mean that. But first come, first serve. This is also true for videos. So it is better to start recording videos as soon as possible.
@Ameo: As far as I know CamStudio does that.
I found this article via stumbleupon and thought it might be useful to me, but sadly it’s not. Why? Because Windows users are so egocentric about Windows that they seem to think everyone else on earth is a Windows user as well. I wasted 5 minutes of my life looking for some indication of system requirements for these apps. Sadly, they are all Windows PC-only crap. So if youre going to talk about software again, please, for the sake of courtesy to the 10% of the world that does NOT use Micro$uck WinDoze, specify the system requirements.
Oh, and don’t bother flaming me in return for my perceived “rudeness.” I only put my spam email address on these blog comment.