How to screen record on Windows 7

What Windows 7 has built in

Windows 7 has no video screen recorder. Its Snipping Tool takes still screenshots only. The Xbox Game Bar arrived with Windows 10, and the Snipping Tool only learned to record video in Windows 11.

What Windows 7 does have is Problem Steps Recorder (later renamed Steps Recorder). It doesn’t make a video. Each time you click, it takes a screenshot and writes a line saying what you clicked and in which window. When you need to show a support desk, a developer or a helpful relative how to reproduce a problem, that’s often more useful than a video: they can read it step by step.

Record the steps with Problem Steps Recorder

1. Click Start, type psr and press Enter. Typing “problem steps” and choosing Record steps to reproduce a problem opens the same tool.
2. Click Start Record and do whatever causes the problem. Each click becomes a numbered step with its own screenshot.
3. To point something out, click Add Comment, drag over that part of the screen, type a note and click OK.
4. Click Stop Record. In the Save As box, give the file a name and click Save.

The result is a ZIP file. Inside is a single MHT report: double-click it and it opens in your browser, with every step, its screenshot and its description. Send the ZIP file as it is to whoever is helping you.

Three things to know before you send it:

• Typing isn’t recorded. Anything you type is left out, which keeps passwords out of the report. If what you typed matters, describe it with Add Comment.
• Only the last 25 screenshots are kept by default, and earlier ones are overwritten. For a longer sequence, click the down arrow next to Help, choose Settings and raise Number of recent screen captures to store. The setting resets when you close the tool.
• Screenshots show everything on the screen. Close anything private first, or set Enable screen capture to No in the same settings to send the step descriptions only.

Record a video with VLC

If you need actual video, VLC is the simplest free way to record your screen on Windows 7, and you may already have it. VideoLAN says the current VLC runs on every version of Windows from XP SP3 to Windows 11, so Windows 7 is covered.

1. Open VLC and go to Media › Convert / Save (Ctrl R).
2. Click the Capture Device tab and set Capture mode to Desktop.
3. Change Desired frame rate for the capture from its default of 1 f/s to 15 or 30. At one frame a second, the video plays like a slideshow.
4. Click Convert / Save at the bottom.
5. Set Profile to Video - H.264 + MP3 (MP4). Next to Destination file, click Browse, type a name ending in .mp4 and click Save.
6. Click Start, then minimise VLC so it’s out of the way.
7. When you’re done, go back to VLC and click the square Stop button.

VLC’s desktop capture is basic. It records the screen without sound and, by default, without the mouse pointer, so viewers can’t see what you click. That’s fine for showing something that happens on screen. For a walkthrough with your voice, use OBS.

Record with sound: OBS Studio 27.2.4

OBS Studio is free and records your screen with your microphone and PC sound, but current versions don’t run on Windows 7. OBS 28, released in 2022, moved to the Qt 6 toolkit, which dropped Windows 7 and 8. The last version that works is OBS Studio 27.2.4, from March 2022.

Download it from the 27.2.4 release on OBS’s own GitHub page (github.com/obsproject/obs-studio, under Releases), not from a site offering “old versions”. The OBS team doesn’t support Windows 7, so if something breaks, there won’t be a fix.

1. Install OBS 27.2.4 and open it.
2. In the Sources box, click +, choose Display Capture and click OK twice. Your screen appears in the preview, mouse pointer included.
3. Check the Audio Mixer. Desktop Audio is the sound from your PC and Mic/Aux is your microphone. Say something, and the Mic/Aux meter should move.
4. Click Start Recording under Controls, and Stop Recording when you’re done.
5. Choose File › Show Recordings to open the folder. By default it’s your Videos folder.

OBS 27 saves recordings as MKV files by default. If your editor or player wants an MP4, use File › Remux Recordings, which repackages the file without re-encoding it.

Clips and GIFs: ShareX 17.1.0

ShareX is a free screenshot tool that also records video and GIFs. ShareX 18.0, released in August 2025, moved to .NET 9 and dropped Windows 7, so the version to install is ShareX 17.1.0 from May 2025, from the Releases page of ShareX’s GitHub project.

1. Press Shift Print Screen.
2. Drag over an area, or click a window. Recording starts straight away, at 30 frames per second, with the pointer.
3. Press Shift Print Screen again to stop.

Ctrl Shift Print Screen records a GIF instead. If ShareX asks to download FFmpeg, the program it records with, say yes. Recordings are saved in Documents\ShareX\Screenshots, in a folder for each month.

Sound is off by default. To add it, open Task settings › Screen recorder › Screen recording options and choose an audio source. For the sound from your PC, ShareX first needs its recorder devices, which the same window offers to install.

PowerPoint 2013 or 2016

If Office is on the PC, check PowerPoint. PowerPoint 2016 has a screen recorder under Insert › Screen Recording. PowerPoint 2013 gained the same button in its February 2015 updates, so it only appears if Office is fully updated. Office 2019 and later need Windows 10.

1. Open a blank presentation and go to Insert › Screen Recording.
2. Click Select Area and drag over what you want to record.
3. Audio and Record Pointer are on by default. Click either to switch it off.
4. Click Record. The control dock can slide up out of sight while you record, so stop with Win Shift Q.
5. The video lands on your slide. Right-click it and choose Save Media As to save it as its own file.

Which one should you use?

	What it records	Sound	Best for
Problem Steps Recorder	A screenshot and description per click	No	Showing someone how to reproduce a problem
VLC	The whole screen, without the pointer	No	A quick silent recording with what you have
OBS Studio 27.2.4	The screen or a window	Microphone and PC sound	Tutorials and longer recordings
ShareX 17.1.0	An area, a window or the screen, as MP4 or GIF	After setup	Short clips and GIFs
PowerPoint 2013 or 2016	An area or the whole screen	Yes	When Office is already installed

Windows 7 is no longer safe to keep online

Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 on 14 January 2020, and the paid Extended Security Updates for businesses stopped on 10 January 2023. Chrome and Edge stopped updating on Windows 7 at version 109, in January 2023. Any security hole found since then stays open, which matters most on a PC you use for email, banking or downloads.

If your PC can run a newer Windows, upgrading is the real fix:

• Windows 11 needs TPM 2.0 and a supported processor (roughly Intel 8th generation or AMD Ryzen 2000 series and newer), so many PCs sold with Windows 7 can’t run it. Microsoft’s free PC Health Check app tells you whether yours can.
• Windows 10 runs on more older hardware, but Microsoft ended regular support for it in October 2025 as well.

Once you’re on a newer Windows, recording is built in: Windows 11’s Snipping Tool records any area with Win Shift R, and the Xbox Game Bar records an app with Win Alt R. If you end up on Windows 10, here’s how to screen record on Windows 10, including the whole desktop. For the free alternatives side by side, see our comparison of free screen recorders for Windows.

screenrecordwindows.com doesn’t run on Windows 7: it needs 64-bit Windows 10 (version 2004 or later) or Windows 11. After an upgrade, it’s a free way to screen record on Windows 10 and 11 that edits the video for you: it zooms in on your clicks, smooths the cursor and blurs private details, all on your PC, with no account and no upload.