How to record a screen on PC with audio?

To share a programming tutorial at work or your progress through a game, it’s best to record a video of the screen. A short video that is a few minutes long is often more informative than several paragraphs of text, even if you add screenshots for clarity. In this article, we’ll tell you about some handy programs and services and how to record a screen with them.

Best paid screen recorder

Movavi Screen Recorder is an excellent and safe screen recorder that can be used in a variety of scenarios, and its well-thought-out and well-localized interface lets you start working immediately after installation without having to study any reference information. The program supports screen capture, webcam broadcasts, audio. It has a delayed recording mode, options of drawing over the video, displaying keystrokes, and mouse clicks. MSR can also be used for free, but in this case, you’ll have to endure watermarks.

To start the recording, you should:

1. Install and run Movavi Screen Recorder from the Start menu or from the desktop shortcut.
2. Select the capture area — part of the screen or the whole screen. The part of the screen to be displayed in the screencast will be highlighted with an orange frame while it’s being captured.
3. Select one of the available audio sources — microphone or system speakers.
4. Press the Rec button and the recording will be started. The program will tell you if you have enough space to save the video and you can delete any files if you need to.

Press Stop and your vid will be automatically saved.

Best built-in screen recorders

To record the screen with audio, you don’t need to download any additional software. For this purpose, both MacOS and Windows have excellent built-in software.

Recording from a screen on a Mac

Follow these steps to record your Mac computer’s screen:

1. With pressing “Command + Shift + 5” the program will open.
2. You can capture the entire screen or just a portion of it. The recording will begin automatically in the first case; in the second, you must begin it manually by setting a timer.
3. When you’re finished, press “Stop” to end the recording.

After that, you’ll be able to cut and save the video.

Recording from a screen on Windows 11

Windows 11 has a lot of cool tools, including the Windows 11 Xbox Game Bar, which supports screen recording. You can use it to capture spectacular moments when gaming and share your joy with others on player communities, social media, or elsewhere.

To start the recording, you should:

1. Launch the Xbox Game Bar or press Win+G.
2. Start the record manually or press Win+Alt+R. Once you start recording, you’ll be able to control the volume with the elements that appear.
3. Place your cursor anywhere on the screen to minimize the game panel widgets, or navigate to a previously running game, application, or browser tab that you want to capture on video.
4. Stop capturing by clicking Stop Recording or Win+Alt+R.
5. With the widget Show All Recordings you’ll be able to see all the vids. Usually, they’re placed on the Clips folder in the Video folder of your PC.

In the panel Xbox Game Bar a lot of settings that allow you to add a picture from the webcam to record, allow the application to capture the voice from the connected microphone, save the dynamic scenes with the option to save the last 30 seconds of what is happening in the game as a clip by pressing Win+Alt+G – indispensable in case of an unexpected and very cool moment in the game.

The best screen recorder for video games

OBS Studio is a cross-platform open-source program. It’s very fast and functional. You can easily record video of the whole screen or individual windows, as well as gameplay of running games.

You can record the sound of the microphone and overlay the webcam image simultaneously from the video display. OBS Studio lets you choose the resolution and recording format (FLV, MP4, MKV, MOV, and others).

OBS Studio can also stream video on Twitch and YouTube, so it’s very popular among gamers. If you want to use the program’s full potential for recording games or other advanced tasks, it’s easy to find detailed manual instructions on the web. They’ll help you achieve the perfect balance between performance and picture quality.

The only drawback I’d like to mention is the lack of a built-in editor. But if you need to trim or somehow change the finished recordings, you can use special programs for video editing.

To start the recording, you need:

1. Launch the program and follow the prompts of the automatic setup wizard.
2. Under “Sources” at the bottom of the OBS Studio interface, click “+”, select “Screen Capture” and click OK.
3. In the lower right corner, click “Start Recording.
4. When you are finished, click “Pause Recording” in the lower right corner.
5. To open the folder with the recorded videos, click “File” → “Show Recordings”.

And if you want to use a free screen recorder, here’s the list of free screen recorders from TechRadar you might use.

When choosing a program to record video from your computer screen, start with your needs. If you want to record a simple short video, an online service is fine. Do you often need to write screen recordings? Download a free utility with the right functionality. Sharing your screen with Zoom? You can record a call there, too. When deciding to buy a monitor video recording program, make sure you really want the features you’ll pay for.