Whether you need to record something amazing during gameplay or a set of important instructions – screen recording software makes that possible.

Much like a futuristic screen grab, screen recorders allow you to capture moving images on a desktop.

Different recorders offer a range of different features, can save captures in varying formats, or capture footage from external sources such as a webcam.

It is important to choose the right free screen recorder depending on what you intend to do with the footage you capture, so here we round up the top free software choices…

OBS STUDIO

If you’re a keen gamer, OBS Studio is perfect for keen gamers.

It easily lets you record for 30 seconds at a stretch unless you’ve bought a license, and applies a watermark to the resulting footage.

The free screen recorder supports both streaming and recording in high definition, with no restrictions on the number or length of your creations.

You can stream live to Twitch or YouTube gaming, save projects and come back to them later, or encode your footage in FLV format and save it locally.

OBS Studio can record directly from your graphics card and can capture games running in full-screen mode, with customizable hotkeys to control the recording.

To learn more about OBS Studio, click here.

FLASHBACK EXPRESS

Despite being a free version of a paid program, FlashBack Express won’t put ugly watermarks over your recordings or impose time limits, and it’s packed with features and tools that rival many premium programs.

You can record from your whole screen, a window, a selected area, or a webcam. Once you’ve finished, your recording will appear in a simple editor, where you can crop and trim it to suit your needs, then export it to YouTube, an FTP server, or your PC.

The recorder can automatically obscure passwords entered on screen, replace your silly wallpaper with a plain one, hide messy desktop icons, and highlight your mouse pointer to make it easier to follow. There’s also a dedicated gaming mode that lets you define the number of frames recorded per second.

There’s no limit on the length of your recordings unless you choose to set one, which can be useful if there’s a chance you might accidentally leave the recorder running. You can also choose to break long recordings up into chunks.

To learn more about Flashback Express, click here.

 

 

APOWERSOFT

Apowersoft is a browser-based tool that allows you to capture footage from your desktop or a webcam, and record audio from your PC, microphone, both or neither.

You can record the whole screen, select an area manually or choose one of the preset resolutions.

Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder also offers customizable keyboard shortcuts for speed and convenience. You can choose whether or not to include the cursor in the recording and take your pick from a range of output formats including MP4, WMV, AVI, MOV and many more.

Once you’re done, you can save the recording as a video file or GIF, upload it directly to YouTube or Vimeo, or send it to Google Drive or Dropbox. You can also edit the clip. Selecting this option will download an additional component – Apowersoft Video Editor – which lets you make simple adjustments before exporting your video in your preferred format.

To learn more about Apowersoft, click here.

 

 

SHAREX

ShareX is an open-source app for capturing still screen grabs and recording videos.

You can also use this free screen recorder to save your capture as a GIF rather than a video file, with no time limits or watermarks.

It can also capture an entire scrolling webpage, capture and identify text via OCR, and even capture your screen according to a schedule.

You can also send your captured grabs and videos straight to a file-sharing or social media site. There’s a vast array of options, which you can check out on the project’s site.

To learn more about ShareX, click here.

 

 

DVDVIDEOSOFT

DVDVideoSoft has been present on the market for over 10 years and remains relevant today.

With this software, you can easily convert video and audio files between different formats as well as iPod, PSP, iPhone, BlackBerry, and all other popular mobile phones and devices.

You can use basic tools to edit the audio and video files before uploading to YouTube and music to your computer or portable device.

What’s more, DVDVideosoft also includes the option to create SD videos and images.

To learn more about DVDVideosoft, click here.

 

 

CAMSTUDIO

CamStudio can record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files.

CamStudio can also add high-quality, anti-aliased (no jagged edges) screen captions to your recordings in seconds and with the unique Video Annotation feature, you can even personalize your videos by including a webcam movie of yourself “picture-in-picture” over your desktop.

And if all that wasn’t enough, CamStudio also comes with its Lossless Codec that produces crystal clear results with a much smaller file size compared with other more popular codecs.

You have total control over the output of your video – you can choose to use custom cursors, to record the whole screen or just a section of it and can reduce or increase the quality of the recording depending on if you want smaller or larger videos.

To learn more about CamStudio, click here.

 

 

EZVID

Ezvid is a full-featured video editor and screen recorder, which has been used to create millions of videos for YouTube, Facebook, and other user-generated content websites.

With one click, you can record your screen with Ezvid, and capture whatever appears on your computer screen: Web pages, games, applications, paint programs, maps and more. Edit your video and then save it for later, or upload it directly to YouTube or your device.

Ezvid creates sharp and high-resolution movies of whatever appears in front of you. You can then non-linearly edit these videos, make speed changes, rearrange, add text, image slides, and much more, creating a video in minutes instead of hours.

Not only does Ezvid use the latest C++ binaries to take advantage of modern multi-core CPUs and video cards, but Ezvid has been carefully designed to increase the speed of screen recording workflow and video editing organization.

To learn more about Ezvid, click here.