Users need to pay attention to the program’s installation as the standard installation will install a toolbar, change the default search provider, homepage, tab search and page not found errors. All of these changes can be disabled if custom installation is selected.

SMRecorder displays a small video control panel on startup that is always on top. The control panel offers options to create a new recording, pause and stop recordings and open the save folder and help file.

A click on the new recording task button opens the recording configuration options. Here it is possible to change general, video and audio related settings. The general settings define the audio input, capture size, save path and duration of the recording.

The three capture types desktop video, camera video and desktop / microphone sound can be selected here as well.

Desktop video records part or all of the Windows desktop, camera video records footage of a webcam and desktop / microphone sound saves only the sound of the computer or cam.

Video and audio settings offer additional options. Users can change the video compression quality and frame rate or the audio volume and quality. It is furthermore possible to disable audio recording completely in case it is not needed or if the user plans to add audio to the video separately.

Videos are automatically saved in avi format once the recording is stopped by the user. It may be a good idea to experiment with different video quality settings to find one that’s suitable for individual tastes and purposes.

SMRecorder is a convenient video recording software for the Windows operating system. The program is available for download at the developer website. It tested fine on a 64-bit Windows 7 Professional system.

The use of Java ensures that the screen recording service works on most operating systems that Java can be installed on including Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh and Linux. The recording works surprisingly well and is completely keyboard driven. Pressing [ALT S] will start the desktop recorder which will capture the entire screen. Pressing the hotkey combination again will stop the recording and display a preview of the video on the ScreenToaster website.

The alternate hotkey to record only part of the computer screen is [ALT Shift S] which lets the user draw a rectangular shape which contents will be recorded. It is possible to quit at this point which would delete the video or assign a title and description to it to store it on the ScreenToaster servers.

Links will be automatically created that can be used to open the recorded video directly in a web browser or embed it on a website. The service is currently in beta and has a few limitations. Sound for instance will not be recorded at all. There is also no way of saving the video on the computer or deleting a video that has been created before.

The developers will surely offer those features in a later build of the software. There was also no information available about maximum recording time, space per user and other limits that might be in place.

ScreenToaster is a desktop recording service which is currently in private beta. Beta keys are usually handed out quite frequently. It took no longer than two days to receive one.

Update: The Screen Toaster website has been returning an error for quite some time. The project appears dead and the link has therefor been removed from the article. A free alternative is Camtasia Studio.