Screen Capture

realJSOP

I was considering doing a video in connection with an article I'm writing. What (free) software can I use to capture the Vistual Studio window (as opposed to the entire screen) as I'm using it? EDIT =============== I think the term I should have used was "screencast" as opposed to "screen capture".

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kmoorevs

I thought that's what alt+prntscrn did?

"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse

rguilmette

I Like SnagIt.

Nicholas Marty

I thought something like this was possible with Camstudio[^] at least I think you can define a portion of the screen you'd like to record.

jeron1

:thumbsup: You learn something new everyday, thanks.

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rnbergren

there is an older version of Windows Media Encoder that will grab only parts of the screen while you use it and put it in a video file along with your voice over for creating a presentation. I liked it very much. version 9 I think but don't trust my memory much more than I trust Griff. Linky for that[^] As for screen capture. I really like OneNote. Just hit Winders Key - S and you can then click and drag with the mouse to grab the area of the screen you want to capture. Then paste as a jpg in Word, Excel, Paint. ETC..... Is that kind of what you are looking for?

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BillWoodruff

Hi John, SnagIt [^] has a free 30-day full-functional trial. It does, indeed, let you limit the recorded area to the current window of your choice. You start the recording session, and then move the mouse until the window you want is highlighted. cheers, Bill

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GenJerDan

Yes, Camstudio will do that. I use it for my YouTube stuff that doesn't have actual photos or video, capturing a part of Cakewalk Sonar's "staff view" for a little movement.

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Kent Sharkey

Yet another vote for Camtasia, but TechSmith also has a free tool for this: Jing[^], if you need something for longer than the 30-day trial of Camtasia.

TTFN - Kent

Steve Wellens

For video: CamStudio. For still screen shots: ScreenHunter. Both are free.

Tim Carmichael

Roll your own... with an SQL back end...

Silvabolt

I've used "Screencast-O-Matic" before and it is good enough, plus its free. http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/[^] The free version allows you to publish to a few standard formats, youtube, and it will do the screen limiting that you need, plus audio. You can specify exactly where and what you want recorded.

Marc Clifton

Call me old school, but I'm quite happy with alt-printscrn for capturing the active window, and if I need to, I'll paste it into Paint (no, not Paint.NET, just plain ol' Paint) and crop it as I see fit. It's a very paintless process, harhar. Marc

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Mike Hankey

For clipping I use greenshot[^], can't recommend it highly enough. For capturing video of keystrokes there's CamStudio[^], I havent really used this much but reviews are great.

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enhzflep

I use Instant Demo for all/any screen recording work of applications in use. You can get both a free and a free version - I've used the free one for the best part of a decade. It allows the painless insertion of captions and (more importantly) it allows you to wait for (or force!) the user to acknowledge a prompt before continuing. The cursor position is recorded as are mouse-clicks and keystrokes. Output is either an AVI or a HTML file and an accompanying SWF. File-sizes are tiny. I use it in preference to both Camtasia and Camstudio. Can't remember the other players in the field. Demos of the product can be found here: Instant Demo Demonstrations[^]

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Peter_in_2780

Surprised nobody mentioned Snipping Tool yet. Been part of windows since Vista. Lives on my quick launch. Click, drag, think of a name. Cheers, Peter

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Rage

This makes a printscreen : it does not record a video.

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Gorpik

So do I, but it is not free.

Eon Malherbe

Jing by http://www.techsmith.com/[^]

H4ndy

If you have a fairly powerful machine you can use Open Broadcaster Studio software. It is optimized for Live-Streaming but can also record locally. If you have NVENC-compatible Nvidia-GPU (7xx or newer) or an Intel i5/i7 3xxx or newer you can use their hardware encoding to record with virtually no performance hit. OBS if free as in free beer, open-source and can record the whole screen or only single windows (Vista SP2 or newer required.) If you need help, drop into our IRC help channel, #obsproject @ quakenet (or use webchat from the OBS homepage). Download: https://www.obsproject.com/[^] How-To for local recording with best quality: https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/how-to-make-high-quality-local-recordings.16/[^]