Recording a desktop computer screen to a movie is useful for recording user testing sessions, as well as making demo videos for presentation or posting on a web site.
Here is some software for recording screencasts.
[Wink|http://www.debugmode.com/wink/] for Windows & Linux, generates Flash videos. Can include annotations and callouts.
[Camtasia Studio|http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp] for Windows, generates AVI and MPG videos. Lots of options, very powerful. You can download a 30-day trial version of Camtasia 5. We also have a [license|https://groups-csail-mit-edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/uid/camtasia/license-key.txt] for an older version, [Camtasia 4|https://groups-csail-mit-edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/uid/camtasia/camtasia-402.zip].
[Snapz Pro X|http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/] for Mac, generates Quicktime. $70.
[iShowU|http://www.shinywhitebox.com/home/home.html] for Mac. $20. Free trial version records 30-second videos.
[Copernicus|http://danicsoft.com/projects/copernicus/] for Mac. Free.
[Screencast-o-matic|http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/] for Windows, Linux, Mac. No install needed -
- records with a Java applet in a web browser and hosts the resulting video on their public server. Somewhat frame-rate-challenged.