Screen recorder for Windows

What you can record

• A screen: any of your monitors, whole. Everything that happens on it is recorded, whichever app it is in.
• A window: one app's window, picked from a list, and the recording follows it when you move it. It must be open, not minimized, when you start.
• An area: a part of one screen that you drag out, such as a slide, a browser tab or a game board. Enter accepts it and Esc cancels.

Show the pointer decides whether the mouse pointer appears in the recording. Hide Octoolo while recording moves Octoolo's own window out of the way as you start. The control bar sits at the top of the recorded screen and can be dragged aside; on Windows 10 version 2004 or later and on Windows 11 it is left out of the recording itself, so it never shows in your video.

Recording sound

Two sources can go in at once, each with a switch, a device list and a level meter:

• Microphone for your voice: the headset, webcam microphone or USB microphone you choose, or Windows' default.
• Computer sound for whatever your PC plays: the call, the game, the tutorial you are narrating over, system sounds.

Both are mixed into the recording's single sound track. Check the meters before you start: if the microphone bar barely moves when you talk, move closer or choose another device; if it sits at the top, back off a little. Turn off Computer sound for a pure voice-over, or the microphone to capture a demo with only its own sound.

Notifications make sounds too, and they pop up on screen. Turn them off in Windows (Do not disturb, or Focus assist on Windows 10) before a recording that matters.

Size, frames and quality

At 1080p, 30 frames a second and Standard, a recording takes about 2 GB an hour. High or 60 frames a second each double that, and Full on a 4K screen is about four times the size of 1080p, so check the space left on your disk before a long session. The picture is encoded as you record, preferably by an NVIDIA, AMD or Intel graphics chip, or failing that by Windows or the processor. Pause and resume as often as you like: the parts are joined into one MP4 when you stop.

Other ways to record your screen on Windows

Windows has two recorders of its own, and they are worth knowing:

• Xbox Game Bar (Win G) records one app or game at a time, with its sound and, if you like, your microphone. It is made for games: it cannot record the desktop or File Explorer, nor an area you choose.
• Snipping Tool on Windows 11 has a record mode for an area of the screen, handy for a quick clip.

Octoolo fits when you need more than that: a whole screen on any monitor, a window or an exact area, microphone and computer sound together with level meters to check them, 60 frames a second, pause and resume, and the Video Editor in the same window to trim the start and end, add titles and make the file smaller with the video compressor.