Free Screen Video Capture by Topviewsoft 4.1

Very few screen-recording utilities are as straightforward and easy to use as Free Screen Video Capture by Topviewsoft. It can easily capture all the activity taking place on your desktop or in a section of it, allowing you to produce your own tutorials, gameplays, presentations, etc., with just a few mouse clicks. The resulting videos can be saved as AVI, MPEG4, or DivX files.

This no-nonsense tool offers a minimal interface with just the buttons and options that you will ever require to produce high-quality videos in the most straightforward way. Actually, if you make use of the program’s hotkeys and assign your favorite ones to the Record/Pause and Stop/Cancel functions, you will only need to go to the program’s main window to open the settings dialog. Much larger than the program’s “main interface”, the Recording Options window will let you define the region you wish to capture (you can create a fixed one here or define it at the time of recording), set your preferred video and audio compression and quality options, define your hotkeys, and select whether to record the cursor movements as well or not.

Once all these options have been set up, you can start your first recording by clicking on the “Record” button or by pressing the hotkey of your choice. If you didn’t select a fixed area, you will have to define the area to capture using your mouse. Once you have finished, four blinking green corners will let you know that the recording process proper has started. Pause, stop, or cancel the recording whenever you wish using the buttons provided or the hotkeys defined, and save the resulting file in the destination, format, and level of quality of your choice.

It is that simple, and the results will surely surprise you. With just the right balance between simplicity and customization, Free Screen Video Capture by Topviewsoft is a very interesting option to consider when it comes to producing animated presentations or tutorials without having to invest on an expensive screen-recording tool and without going through tough learning curves.