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.