Best Free screencasting/screenrecording software for Windows

I’ve always been one for screen recording/screencast/video capture tutorials. I feel that they help me understand and emulate the ‘tutorial’ better, because I can actually see what the person is try to say. Plus, it’s so much easier as a person who is trying to tell someone something to just show how to do it instead of describing to someone how they can do something. Of course, using things like screenshots (with software like the free and excellent Screenshot Captor) should suffice most of the time, but sometimes, its just easier to do screen captures.

Once you are done recording a screencast, you can easily upload it to a video sharing service like YouTube. Plus, screencasts/screen recordings are useful when you’re doing a presentation and don’t have the luxury of bringing along your laptop or an internet connection. I must mention here that if you are using a video recording for a presentation, please do not make it annoying with all sorts of click noises, and also please make sure that the text is readable. I find that many people just take a screen recording of a screen that is 1900 x 1200 and the mouse cursor looks like an ant moving around on the screen – not good when you want to show people something.

First up –

Free and Open Source screen casting and screen recording software

CamStudio – This is probably one of the most well know free open source screen recording software out there. It has the ability to capture everything on your screen in different file formats (like AVI and SWF) and also has the ability to record audio along with the screen recording. It’s perfect for those tutorials that you might want to do. It also has other feature like mouse highlighting, and mouse clicking sounds. However, I find those two features a bit annoying, so I wouldn’t recommend using them, because I’m sure there are many people like me out there. Recommended for Screencasting Tutorials.

Taksi – A screen recording software that was primarily built to recording video games and other 3d applications. Because of this, it has live compressions systems to keep the size of the files produced down (because video games usually have a high frame rate – which inflates the file size of normal screen recordings). Recommended for Video Game Recordings

Virtual Dub – Another open source screen recorder. It was mainly built for Windows though, so it saves files as AVIs, although it has the ability to use several codecs. This doesn’t have as many options as CamStudio though.

Freeware (but not open source) screen casting/screen recording/video capture software

Wink – This is a program that was specifically created for the purpose of tutorials and presentations. It has many additional features like the ability to add ‘comment boxes’ while the video is playing to tell the viewer about important information, and also saves the output as swf files for easy uploading to your web server. It’s almost like Camtasia/Captivate (both of which are paid software) but it does the same thing for free. However, it does have some limitations when it comes to the video player and the design of the callouts.

Evan’s AVI Screen Capture – Simply captures everything on your screen and your screen cursor. You can then import the AVI into some other kind of video editing software like Windows Movie Maker and then add narration if desired.

Capture Fox – Capture fox is a great little addon for Mozilla Firefox, that can capture video recordings of websites as well as anything else that can be displayed on the computer. It can also capture audio input as well. However, you will require Firefox to be able to use the add-on.

Jing – Although I don’t particularly like Jing, it’s still an application that can record everything that’s on your screen. I can also record system audio or microphone audio (but not both). You can also directly upload screen casts to screencast.com. It’s free for now, but in the future, expect premium services.

21 Killer Tricks to Increase Your Productivity on your Computer

Ever wonder why some people get their work done faster than others? I do. In fact, I'm amazed at the fact that of how many often get their work and projects finished in a fraction of the time it takes others to complete the same tasks. So I set off on an adventure to find the best tips to turn myself into a lean mean working machine. With a little help from the great not so ol' computer of course.

1. Use Voice recognition - If you don't use it, I'm afraid, you're missing out on a lot of productivity. USE IT! If you don't know how then take a look at an article that tells you how. Bear in mind though that it isn't fully developed yet, but it should be in a couple of years time.
2. Get Organized (Put files in appropriate folder and delete files you don't need) - I can't believe how much time I've saved by not searching as much for the stuff I need.
3. Work Offline - Just because you don't have Internet on your way to work, it doesn't mean that you can still do work
4. Use a Dual Monitor setup - Invest in another flat screen LCD monitor of a considerable size and start using two screens. This is especially useful if you are a developing, researching, writing and even playing Counter-Strike.
5. Follow the do it now policy - don't leave anything for later. If you need to e-mail some one pictures of your vacation, do it now.
6. Stop using youtube, digg, facebook and the like - Yes, I realize how addictive this can be, but in order to focus on the task as hand, it is impossible to check what's happening on digg and do your work properly at the same time. Close your web browser, and keep only the necessary windows open and limit the time you spend on social networking sites.
7. Become and expert in using search engines - Once you become an expert, you will be able to find information more quickly and easily, without wasting any valuable time.
8. Turn off IM and Quit checking your e-mail. Do it once every couple of hours at most and keep and eye on the time you spend going through your e-mail
9. Make your computer faster - If you're using an old computer, or a computer that runs Windows, then you might be loosing a lot of time
10. Use an organizer - Use something like WordPerfect Lightning to quickly jot down notes onto your computer
11. Prioritize and Make sure to follow the schedule
12. Use sticky notes - the real ones more than the ones on your computer. And once your write/type something make sure to read it once in a while too.
13. Use RSS instead of visiting each and every single website that you'd like to read regularly
14. Brainstorm on PAPER. Use the PC only to prepare your final draft once you're certain of what you'd like to do. You'll save much more time that way
15. Upgrade your peripherals to suit your needs. Invest in a good chair and table if you tend to do a lot of work on your computer
16. Speed up your Internet connection and network
17. Proof read your document the smart way (if its small of course) - use Microsoft Word/Adobe Reader/Your Mac to read it out to you. You'll most likely find more mistakes that way.
18. Get a small pocket size notepad to make changes on the go. Cell phones don't really do the job right. Get a portable electronic device to record voice notes if necessary. Once you have access to your computer, transfer it all to your computer.
19. Become a e-mail ninja! Learn how to get rid of e-mail you don't really need to read.
20. Let the computer open your applications - I usually almost always have one of these set ups running on my computer so what I do is create a separate account for each configuration and then use the start up folder trick to kind of copy Apple's Spaces in leopard. Here are the following 'spaces' I use regularly:
    1. Word processing mode - I usually have Microsoft Word, my web browser and my music player open
    2. Blogging mode - 2 web browsers, windows live writer and my speech recognition application.
21. Tweak your software - Get a decent browser like FireFox, that is going to run faster and not crash as much. Use Macros in Microsoft Word to do the tasks that you perform regularly. Disable distracting applications and free up space on your computer. Keep only the windows that you need open.

And one final tip - Make sure you actually remember this list and stick to it.

Minimize any application to system tray

Here's a little gem of a tool I found in order to help you minimize any application to the system tray so that you can easily access it later, without it cluttering up your taskbar. It's called PowerMenu, and to be honest, it is quite powerful. Apart from just minimizing any window to the taskbar, it can also do many other things.

It can also change the transparency of the window, and make sure that a program stays on top of all other programs. This can be especially helpful when you are chatting with someone, and you always need to keep an eye on the conversation.

I also use it on Windows Vista to minimze Windows Mail to the system tray, so that I can check my e-mail regularly, just like how outlook can be minimized to the system tray.

Get free MSN messenger Emoticon Smiley Packs

If you tend to use Windows Live Messenger (you might also refer to this by the name MSN messenger, or simply call it MSN), then I'm sure you'd love to add more emoticons to your collection (Psst.. if you don't already have a emoticon collection you can steal emoticons from others when they use custom emoticons). I believe these emoticons used to be paid, but then Microsoft realized that no one was buying them, and finally decided to make them free.

Getting the emoticons itself is pretty straight forward. All you need to do is head over to Free Messenger Emoticons site (notice how the url is .ca - this is because most of the people who use MSN/Live Messenger are Canadian, I think. I'm pretty sure everyone uses AIM in the states). Of course, you need to have the latest version of Windows Live Messenger installed in order to use the emoticons, so if you don't already have it installed then you can download it here. There is also another free way of getting free emoticon packs along with lots of other cool downloads for Windows Live Messengers, which you can find at Kiwee.com. All you need to is go to the emoticon section and download whatever you want!

Once you go to the website, all you need to do is click on the 'Install 30 Messenger Emoticons' button and then download the Emoticons.exe file onto your computer. Once downloaded, simply follow the prompts on the screen to finish installing the smileys.
One word of caution though. As you go through the install process, in the 3rd step, the installer is going to ask you if you want to change your homepage etc. If you don't want to change your homepage, then make sure to uncheck the check boxes.
After you are done installing the smiley pack, you can then use the free smiley pack through the Windows Live Messenger conversation window. Make sure you click on the 'Show all...' link though.
Don't forget, you can also get other smileys from your friends, when your friends use custom emoticons.