The countdown and a clean desktop

Three small things in the settings menu, all of which save a re-take.

Countdown

Countdown offers none, or one to four seconds, and it is set to three out of the box. A large number counts down over the screen after you press record, and recording starts when it reaches zero.

Three seconds is enough to get your hand back on the mouse and your face back to normal, and it means the first frame of the video is not you reaching away from the record button. Press Escape during the countdown to call the whole thing off.

Hide desktop icons during recording

Under Experimental, and off until you switch it on. Your desktop icons disappear while recording and come back when it stops. If you are recording a full display, this is the difference between a clean background and a video that shows the world a folder called taxes-final-FINAL-2.

It does not touch your files. It hides the icon layer and puts it back.

Where the toolbar goes

The toolbar is never in the recording. Depending on what you are capturing it either hides for the take or stays visible to you but out of the frame, and a notice tells you which before you start.

Once recording, the tray icon shows the time so far, and right clicking it gives you Stop Recording and Open Folder without having to find the toolbar again.

The pointer

Worth knowing before your first take: the recording does not contain the Windows mouse pointer. This is deliberate. The editor draws its own, which is smoother and can be made bigger, highlighted and faded. If you want the real one baked in instead, that is the cursor button on the toolbar, and the editor will stand down when it sees one rather than drawing a second pointer next to yours.