
I finally finished this awesome game called Photoshop, let me send you a video - ikeboy
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20160607-00/?p=93605
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partiallypro
I've done this to demo or give instructions before. There are some caveats,
sometimes it doesn't record tool tips or contextual menus. It also will not
record more than one program at a time, even if they are on the same monitor.
It will record the program you were focused on when you first started
recording. So forget showing off a drag and drop, etc.

I'd like to see them expand this to not be Xbox branded and to just be like
the "snipping" feature (which I use all the time.)

~~~
soylentcola
Agree completely. It's a great feature and would remove much of the need for
dedicated applications like Fraps or Camtasia Recorder for people who just do
the occasional screen recording.

I tried doing this at one point early after the Win10 release (I think just to
record a browser session) and there was something I didn't like about it.
Sadly I forget what it was. Maybe it was that the Xbox app/recorder would
always want to launch or run now that it thought that program was a "game" or
maybe it was some hotkey conflict.

Either way I disabled it and await it someday becoming a more useful feature.

~~~
gambiting
My problem with it is that as soon as I enable it, my mouse speed changes to
the speed of light, and goes back as soon as I switch it off. It's literally
unusable. So far I found no way to fix it.

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ikeboy
I've also seen [http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/how-do-i-use-
pro...](http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/how-do-i-use-problem-
steps-recorder) referenced as a way to do similar things.

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have_faith
Very happy to have something like this baked into the OS.

I thought clicking "Yes, this is a game" was a joke, not that you actually
have to tell the app that the program is a game...that's very confusing from a
UX perspective. Why do they do that?

edit: on a side note, why doesn't this work in the file explorer or when not
focused on a program?

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saddestcatever
Maybe a licensing/legal restriction? Could adding screencapture support of
arbitrary content get Microsoft in trouble?

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milesokeefe
They have done that with the Snipping Tool since Win7.

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holyoly
Pretty sure it doesn't do video.

~~~
colejohnson66
Well, a video /is/ a series of pictures...

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zhte415
Shared a very nice screencast capture tool a few months ago (no affiliation,
other than a user) [https://getsharex.com/](https://getsharex.com/)

~~~
stanmancan
I'm curious how Google would feel if they saw their logo.

~~~
biot
Primary colors arranged geometrically has been a thing since Office 95,
predating Google:
[http://logos.wikia.com/wiki/Microsoft_Office](http://logos.wikia.com/wiki/Microsoft_Office)
Since then, variations on the theme have been heavily reused for all kinds of
logos.

~~~
stanmancan
I wasn't just referencing the colours, but the shape is super similar too.

~~~
biot
Yeah, by "variations on the theme" I was referring to all kinds of shapes and
arrangements, like in a square, circle, triangle, dots orbiting each other,
ribbons, and so on. Just like the "thing with a swoosh/crescent" trend back in
the 90s (to go along with company names ending in "ent"), logos with RYGB
primary colors in all kinds of geometric patterns were a thing too. Logos for
Google products like Chrome, Web, Apps, etc. are yet more iterations on an
existing trend.

~~~
stanmancan
My argument is more for the fact that these two logos in particular seems
pretty close. I'd be willing to put money that my parents wouldn't notice the
difference if you swapped the sharex logo out for the chrome logo.

[https://getsharex.com/favicon.ico](https://getsharex.com/favicon.ico)

[https://www.google.com/images/icons/product/chrome-48.png](https://www.google.com/images/icons/product/chrome-48.png)

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nailer
Video capture really should be part of the OS, like screencapture is. I use
Screenflow on OS X to do this - it's _very_ handy for demoing bugs to others,
or sending people instructions etc.

Well done Windows.

~~~
drinchev
Quicktime ( integrated with OS X ) allows you to make a screen recording.

QuicktimePlayer -> File menu -> New Screen Recording

~~~
Razengan
You can even use the Quicktime Player to record your iPhone/iPad screen in
high-quality via Lightning cable, or to simply view your iOS device on a big
screen (with less lag than wireless/AirPlay.)

~~~
lode
This can even be used to sneakily record Snapchat images & movies.

~~~
Razengan
IIRC the "intended" use was to record demos of your apps and games,
considering that QT Player got this feature at the same time they introduced
video previews to the App Store. :)

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an_ko
For Linux, this is pretty easy to do from the command-line with ffmpeg/ffcast
(using the x11grab option). Here's a fuller explanation, plus GIF conversion
with ImageMagick:
[http://unix.stackexchange.com/q/113695/16404](http://unix.stackexchange.com/q/113695/16404)

~~~
stirner
GIF isn't a good video codec. I would recommend VP8 or H264.

Using huffyuv for the initial capture is going to start stuttering at higher
FPS (the example uses 15, presumably because anything higher would result in
massive file sizes given GIF's terrible compression ratio), because the disk
won't be able to write fast enough. x264 with the ultrafast preset is a better
option in my experience.

I don't understand the purpose of the ffcast tool - it seems to be as or even
more verbose than just use ffmpeg directly.

~~~
an_ko
Yep, GIF sucks, but it's unfortunately the only thing even remotely close to
video that's embeddable on most StackExchange sites and a whole lot of chat
platforms.

Ffcast also integrates selection of the capture area, which is a rather
finicky argument to pass from xrectsel to ffmpeg. No need for it if you're
capturing fullscreen.

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ominous
Nice.

On using things for other than its original purpose:

1) [http://www.tedunangst.com/flak/post/file-considered-
harmful](http://www.tedunangst.com/flak/post/file-considered-harmful)

2) [https://stallman.org/articles/on-
hacking.html](https://stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html)

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pjc50
Similarly, Steam streaming can be used with things that aren't games by using
"add non-steam game to library". If the thing you add has a minimise button
this can be used to get to the desktop of the streaming PC.

Edit: Question I've suddenly realised. What happens in either case (Microsoft
recording or Steam) when you're playing a copyrighted video?

~~~
drzaiusapelord
This is a handy trick, but these are different use cases. Yours is live
streaming, but this is for making video files you still need to send/host. Not
sure if it picks up a mic, but this could be handy for making quick and dirty
tutorials.

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verytrivial
Which video format does this save to?

~~~
madmoose
After a quick test, VLC says:

Video: H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1) Audio: MPEG AAC Audio (mp4a) at
48000 Hz

Sadly it maxes out at 1080p.

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AdmiralAsshat
I'm assuming this will only let you share a specific application, not the
desktop itself. So this may not work as a complete replacement for
screencasting software.

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antirez
Not sure why you would restrict an useful feature like that to a particular
set of applications.

~~~
khedoros
It's just marketing. Sharing game recordings with friends is "A Thing".
Microsoft wants to be seen as helping normal users do popular things (and get
them tied closer into the Xbox brand). Recording for other purposes doesn't
let them brand the feature as obviously.

From what other commenters are saying, it often misses things like tooltips
and menu dropdowns.

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Const-me
Needs some work.

On my PC, it says “There’s nothing to record. Play some more and try again”.

NVidia ShadowPlay records good here.

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drudru11
Is this the same, famous Raymond Chen of Old New Thing fame?

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elevenfist
Macs have had this for years now with quicktime installed by default...

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capote
Quaps have had this for centuries now with pliptime installed by default

~~~
capote
It's so obvious that downvoters are just jealous they don't have a Quap with
Pliptime.

~~~
capote
I suppose the age old Mac vs. PC vs. Quap debate contributed to the volatility
of the scores of these posts.

