How to Record Your Screen for Free, No Download Needed

A short screen recording often explains something faster than a long message. It shows a bug to a developer, walks a relative through a setting, or captures a how-to for your team. Modern desktop browsers can do it themselves, with no app to install.

How to record

1. Open the Screen Recorder. Choose whether to include sound from the screen, and whether to add your microphone.
2. Press Choose what to record. Your browser shows a picker.
3. Pick a browser tab, a single window or the whole screen, then confirm.
4. Do what you want to show. Press Stop on the page, or use the Stop sharing button your browser shows.
5. Watch it back and download the file.

Tab, window or screen?

• A tab is the cleanest. Only that page is recorded, and in Chrome you can include its sound.
• A window records one app and hides everything else, so private notifications stay out.
• The whole screen records everything, including pop-ups. Close anything private first.

Making a recording people can follow

• Close extra tabs and turn on your focus mode so alerts don't appear.
• Move the mouse slowly and pause for a moment on what matters.
• Keep it short. Two minutes you planned beats ten minutes that wander.
• Say what you are about to click before you click it, if you're adding your voice.

Good to know

Screen recording works on desktop browsers. Most phone browsers can't share the screen. Sound from the screen depends on the browser and on what you share, and it's most reliable when you pick a tab. The video is saved on your device, and nothing is sent anywhere. Long, high-quality recordings make large files, so stop when you have what you need.