An online course, a video call, a demonstration: record a tab, a window or the whole screen, with sound. The video is written to your computer; nothing is sent.
Click “Start recording”. On Chrome and Edge, first choose where to store the video: it will be written there as it goes.
A browser window asks what to share: pick the tab of the course, with its audio.
The red counter runs and the green bar moves when there is sound. You can pause.
At the end, click “Stop and save the video”. It is in the folder you chose, and plays back under the button.
Tips for a successful recording
Do a one-minute trial before the day, and play the video back with sound.
Plug the computer in and check there is enough disk space left.
The course opens in an app (Teams, Zoom) rather than a tab? Share the whole screen and tick “Also share system audio”.
Are you allowed to? A course or a meeting belongs to those who give it: ask the trainer's permission and tell the participants. The recording is for your personal use.
This tool works on a computer
Phone and tablet browsers cannot record the screen from a web page.
iPhone, iPad: open Control Centre and tap the screen recording button.
Android: in the quick settings panel, tap “Screen recorder”.
On a computer, open this page with Chrome, Edge or Firefox.
Good to know
Where does the video go?
On Chrome and Edge, you choose the file at the start and the video is written to it as it goes: even a course of several hours does not fill the memory, and a crash only loses the last few seconds. On Firefox, the video is kept in memory and offered for download at the end: prefer recordings under one hour.
Why is there no sound?
The browser only provides sound if you share a tab (“Also share tab audio”) or, on Windows, the whole screen (“Also share system audio”). A single window is always silent. The tool warns you at the start if no sound comes in.
What plays the video?
WebM plays in VLC and in a browser; MP4 also plays in the Windows player and on a phone. For a long course, keep WebM: it is written to disk every two seconds, whereas MP4 sometimes waits several minutes when the picture does not move.
What about phones?
Phone browsers cannot record the screen from a web page. Use the built-in recorder: Control Centre on iPhone, quick settings panel on Android.