A basic example is to open your favorite web browser and a website of your choosing. All that it takes to record the task is to press the record button in the WinParrot interface. If this is a new task you need to select a save location for the information. You then begin to click on the browser icon in your taskbar, wait until it opens up, click in the address bar and enter the website that you want to visit. A click on stop ends the recording.

Now you can play back the recording whenever you want to open the web browser and visit that website again.

While it is possible to use WinParrot for simple tasks like this, it is probably more suitable for test environments and data entry jobs. Say you are working on a website and need to run some compatibility tests. Instead of having to run those tests manually, you could use the software to run the tests for you so that you can concentrate on the outcome.

The developer has posted two example videos on YouTube. Here is one of them demonstrating automatic Oracle Applications 11i and 12i data loading.

The program uses screenshots to record the tasks, which means that you need to work a bit slower than usual so that all actions get recorded by WinParrot.

The program interface displays all screenshots that it has taken and their corresponding actions. Here it is possible to move, delete or copy actions if necessary. It is furthermore possible to disable actions, handy if you only want to run a specific part of a recording and not all of it.

WinParrot is a handy program for Windows users who want to automate tasks on their operating system. Macros can be scheduled using the command line, a basic example would be the following:

'C:\winparrot\bin\winparrot.exe C:\winparrot\macro\mymacro.wpr /play'

Windows users can download the latest version of WinParrot from the developer website. New users should take a look at the excellent online help to get accustomed to the application.

Screen2Avi is another lightweight free program to record avi videos. The program is available as a portable version and installer. The application uses tabs to configure the screen recording session. Available for selection are fullscreen, predefined and custom dimensions for the video.

It is not only possible to select the recording dimensions, but also the position of the recording frame. You can select one of the nine fixed positions like center left or bottom right, or define a custom position on screen. There is unfortunately no option to directly select a program window for recording. The only option to record a window is to use the custom positioning to set its position on the screen. The position and dimension are shown with a green frame directly on the screen.

All installed video compression codecs are available for selection under video. This is also the location where the frame rate of the recording is defined.

Screen2Avi can record audio, but that feature needs to be enabled separately. The program supports only audio recording from external sources like microphones, it cannot record the system sound directly. You can select audio devices available on the computer.

The output path for the screencast is defined under General. Other available options are enabling or disabling the mouse cursor or configuring hotkeys to start pause and stop the recordings.

A click on the red recording button starts the recording. It is usually easier to use hotkeys (F1 start, F5 stop) than the buttons in the program window, especially when recording in fullscreen.

Screen2Avi has a few usability issues, like the previously mentioned audio recording limitations or selection of windows. It is nevertheless a handy tool for users who need to create a screen recording, especially if they can live with those limitations.

Windows users can download the screen recording software Screen2Avi from the developer website. It is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. The developers have uploaded a tutorial to their website that walks new users through the configuration and creation process.

Screen2Exe comes with the option to create a recording of the full desktop or only part of it. The only two options that are available as well before starting the recording are to include audio in the recording and to set a frame rate for it.

A click on the Start Recording button will start the recording process of the computer screen once the parameters have been set (or the default ones left untouched). The program will display a five second countdown before it starts to record the whole screen or the selected window.

A set of post-recording options are available. It is possible to save the screen recording right away to the local computer system, run a frame optimization script to remove unnecessary frames to reduce the size of the output or to open the editing options.

These basic editing options allow a user to add annotations, images, delays, mosaics, to zoom or focus, cut the clip or to optimize the frames. The screen recording can be played in the interface. Once the editing has been done the recording can be saved.

Screen2Exe is a basic screen recording software that should suffice for demonstrations that do not rely on fast moving objects or images. Users who need more options and a selection of other output file formats might want to check out the screen capture software Webinaria, the online desktop recorder ScreenToaster, Debut or Camtasia.

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.

While the normal options to record the screen or webcam are top notch Debut comes with a feature that I have not seen in any other video capturing software yet. Debut can start with Windows and start the recording process immediately. A maximum recording time can be specified with the option to start a new recording immediately afterwards or to stop the recording.

This is useful in combination with the next feature of Debut. A completed recording can be processed in a number of ways. The recording can be send as an email attachment, uploaded to an ftp server, mirrored on a local or network drive or sent to another executable that can be specified by the user.

Debut is compatible to several Microsoft operating systems including Windows 98, 2000, XP and Windows Vista.

It comes with a few settings, quality settings for instance, but those are really only a few when compared to the screen recording applications mentioned above. You basically pick the size of the recording area from several available ones. They are divided into so called Zoom Levels and those that resize the desktop and the default one which records the complete desktop.

We all know that a larger area will increase the size of the video tremendously. The Zoom Levels that are available are 640×480, 800×600 and 1024×768. They appear as a green box that can be moved across the screen before starting the recording.

The compression setting has a huge impact on the quality of the recording. The default, lower quality, reduces the file size but is problematic with text and tiny objects if you do a full screen recording. The high quality compression creates a clear image that is good to read. Voice can be recorded as well by using a microphone that is connected to the computer.

The output will be created as flv files that can be uploaded to Youtube for instance or the service that the developers of Tip Cam offer their users. Tip Cam is excellent for users that want to create a quick recording without having to worry about complicated settings and options.

Camtasia Studio 2 is not the newest version of the software – that would be Camtasia Studio 5 – but it is absolutely capable of performing flawless screen recordings. A promotion of an British computer magazine some months ago provided users with Camtasia Studio 3. If you missed that you can still grab version 2.

Visit the website with the promotion and enter your name, email address and select a country. The button Anmelden will complete the registration process and send an email to the address that you entered in the form.

The email will contain the serial number that will convert the trial version of Camtasia Studio 2 to the full version. Download the english trial version of Camtasia Studio 2 and enter the serial number once the download has finished. If you prefer the German trial follow this link.

The upgrade to version 5 of Camtasia Studio is possible for the price of €142.99 instead of €286.99 which is a reduction by more than 50%.