A simple screen area recorder for Windows
English | Русский
qrec records a rectangle of the screen, or a whole display, to an MP4 file: H.264 video encoded by the graphics card, the sound the computer plays as AAC, and the pointer. The window holds the few settings there are, a global hotkey starts and stops the recording from anywhere, and another one opens the area selection.
The window of version 0.1.0.
- An area or a display: the area is drawn with the mouse over a dimmed screen, freely or in the proportions 16:9 or 1:1, and remembered; a red frame marks it while it is recorded.
- Hardware encoding: H.264 by the NVIDIA, Intel or AMD encoder of the graphics card through Media Foundation, with Microsoft's software encoder as the fallback; frames go from the screen to the encoder without leaving the graphics card.
- The sound of the computer without "Stereo Mix": whatever is played is captured through WASAPI loopback and written as AAC; no virtual cable or driver is needed.
- The sound of one program: instead of the whole system, the sound of a single program can be recorded, and with Boost at full volume, whatever its volume in the Volume Mixer.
- The pointer is drawn into the recording, including the inverted I-beam.
- Trimming without re-encoding: the start and the end of a recording are cut off in a window with the frame under the cursor and a timeline; the chosen stretch is copied into a new file as it is, in a moment and without loss of quality.
- Few settings: 30 or 60 frames per second, a quality of three steps, a bitrate that follows what is on the screen or one fixed beforehand, and whether sound and the pointer are recorded.
- Hotkeys:
Ctrl+Alt+Rstarts and stops the recording,Ctrl+Alt+Aopens the area selection; each is changed in the window by pressing another combination, or removed. - An icon in the notification area: red while a recording runs, with the time recorded in its tooltip; its menu starts and stops the recording, opens one of the latest recordings, and can leave the program in the notification area alone, without a taskbar button, make the window's cross hide it there, or put the window away when a recording starts.
- Nothing of qrec in the recording: its own windows are kept out of the capture.
- Russian and English: the interface follows the language of Windows, or the one chosen in the About window.
- One file: no FFmpeg, no runtime, no network access; the executable is about 7 MB.
The installer and the portable archive are published on the Releases page.
The installer, qrec_<version>_Setup.exe, needs no administrator rights: the program is placed in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\qrec. The installed program keeps its settings in %APPDATA%\qrec; when the program is uninstalled, a question decides whether they are deleted too. A running copy is closed by the installer and the uninstaller as its cross would close it: a recording in progress is completed first.
The portable archive, qrec_<version>_portable.zip, contains the program in a qrec folder and runs without installation. It also contains an empty app.ron file: while it lies beside qrec.exe, the settings are kept in that folder, so the program can be carried on a removable drive (the folder must be writable); without it they are kept in %APPDATA%\qrec, as for the installed program.
Requirements: Windows 10 version 2004 or later, 64-bit; the installer does not run on earlier versions. On earlier builds of Windows 10 the portable version runs, but the sound is captured from the default output device instead of through the process loopback (see Sound), the sound of one program cannot be recorded, and the windows of qrec may appear in the recording.
| Setting | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Display | The monitor to record, when there are several. The area belongs to one monitor. |
| Proportions | Free, 16:9 or 1:1: the shape of the area drawn with the mouse. A 16:9 area changes in steps of 2 pixels, its height rounded to the even number H.264 needs, so it is within a pixel of 16:9 and exact where the ratio allows it (1280×720, 1920×1080); a 1:1 area is a square. The corner where the drag starts stays in place, and the area stops at the edge of the monitor. An area already chosen takes the new proportions around its centre. |
| Area | Select… hides the window and dims the screen; the area is drawn with the left mouse button, Esc or the right button cancels. Whole display records the monitor entirely. The current choice of the two is highlighted. The area is remembered between runs. |
| Frame rate | 30 or 60 frames per second. A still screen costs nothing extra: the last image is repeated. |
| Quality | Low, Medium or High. With the bitrate By quality, the quantisation parameter of every frame (30, 26 or 22); with a Fixed bitrate, about 0.05, 0.1 or 0.2 bits per pixel and frame. |
| Bitrate | By quality (the default): every frame is encoded to the same quality, and the file follows what is on the screen: a still screen takes almost nothing, fast motion as much as it needs. Fixed: the encoder is given a bitrate from the area, the frame rate and the quality; 1920×1080 at 30 frames per second comes to about 3, 6 or 12 Mbit/s, and the window shows the most the chosen area takes, in Mbit/s and in megabytes per minute with the sound. The size is then known beforehand, and fast motion loses detail. An encoder that does not accept a constant quality records at the fixed bitrate, which the status line mentions when the recording starts. |
| Record | Sound: the sound, from the source below. Pointer: the mouse pointer. |
| Sound from | Whole system: everything the computer plays, at the volume it is played. Or one of the programs that have played sound since they started (those of the Volume Mixer; the ones playing now are shown brighter): only its sound. Boost, beside the list, records it at full volume whatever its volume in the mixer; without it the program is recorded as it is heard (see Sound). Two programs of one name (two copies of a browser) are told apart by the folder they are in, Vivaldi (VP). The program is remembered by the path of its executable and must be running when a recording starts; when it runs more than once, the copy that plays at that moment is recorded. |
| Folder | Where the files go; Videos by default. Open shows the folder in Explorer. |
| Record key | Starts and stops the recording from any window; Ctrl+Alt+R by default. A click on Change, then a key with Ctrl, Alt or Win, or a function key, sets another one; Esc or Cancel keeps the current one; the cross beside Change removes the hotkey. A combination held by another program is reported as not available. |
| Area key | Opens the area selection from any window, as Select… does; Ctrl+Alt+A by default, changed and removed in the same way. It does nothing while a recording runs. A window minimised or hidden in the notification area stays so after the selection. A combination given to one of the two hotkeys is taken from the other. |
Record starts the recording; while it runs, the button shows the time recorded and stops the recording when clicked. The number of frames skipped, if the computer could not keep up, appears below. A red frame surrounds the area while it is recorded. The file is named by the date and time, qrec_2026-10-08_16-45-12.mp4, and after the recording it appears below the buttons as a card: a small picture of it (a click opens it for trimming), its name, a link that shows it in Explorer, its length, size and picture size, and two buttons: scissors to trim it (see Trimming) and a waste bin that moves it to the Recycle Bin, for a take that is not worth keeping.
When the folder holds other recordings (the files named qrec_…, cuts included), More N on the card lists the latest of them above it, newest first: a picture of each (a frame a second in; a click opens it for trimming), when it was made, its name, length, size and picture size, and the same two buttons. The menu of the notification area icon has the same list under Latest recordings; a click on one opens it in the trimming window.
A recording usually holds a little of what came before and after what was wanted, as it is started and stopped by hand. The scissors beside the last recording, or beside one in the list, open a window that cuts the start and the end off without re-encoding: the chosen stretch of the file is copied into a new one beside the source, qrec_2026-10-08_16-45-12_0.02.000-0.14.500.mp4, as it is, in a moment and without loss of quality; the source is left as it was (unless Replace the original is ticked, see below). The same window opens for an MP4 file dropped onto the qrec window, or given to qrec.exe as its argument (Explorer's Open with); with Trim after recording in the menu of the notification area icon, it opens by itself when a recording ends.
The window shows the frame under the cursor and a timeline with the stretch kept and the key frames marked under it. The cursor is moved by dragging on the timeline or with the arrow keys: by a frame, with Shift by a key frame, with Ctrl by a second; Home and End go to the first and the last frame. Under the timeline the buttons that move the cursor are in the middle, around the button with a triangle (Space), which plays the recording with its sound from the cursor and pauses it; the time under the cursor is below them. ▶ Play beside the length of the stretch (Shift+Space) plays the stretch kept, from its start to its end. Moving the cursor stops playback. The buttons [ (I) and ] (O) either side of them place the start and the end of the stretch at the cursor; the marks can also be dragged, and a click on the time beside either moves the cursor there. H.264 is decoded from a key frame, so without re-encoding the stretch can only start on one: the start sticks to the key frame nearest the cursor or the pointer, before or after it. qrec puts a key frame every second, so the start is within half a second of the choice; the end is exact to the frame. The sound is cut to the same stretch. Save the cut (Ctrl+S) writes the file. With Replace the original the cut takes the place of the file it was made from instead of going into a new one, and the original goes to the Recycle Bin; a file that is open in another program is not replaced. The choice, and the window's place and size, are remembered.
The window opens MP4 files with H.264 video and AAC sound, as qrec writes them. Files of other programs usually have key frames every few seconds, which limits where a cut can start.
The area is cut to the monitor it was started on, its sides are made even (as H.264 requires), and it is at least 64 pixels on each side. The whole display is recorded when the area is outside the monitor, for instance after the displays were rearranged.
The icon of qrec in the notification area turns red while a recording runs, and its tooltip shows the time recorded. A click on the icon brings the window to the front; its menu (right button) starts or stops the recording, shows the window, opens one of the Latest recordings in the trimming window or the folder of the recordings, opens About, or closes the program. Not on the taskbar in the same menu removes the window's button from the taskbar (and from Alt+Tab): the minimise button then hides the window, and the icon brings it back. Hide when closed makes the cross in the window's corner hide the window instead of closing the program; Alt+F4 and the Exit item still close it. Minimise when recording starts minimises the window as a recording starts, however it was started (hidden instead when the window is not on the taskbar), and brings it back when the recording stops; a window that was already minimised or hidden (a recording started by the hotkey) stays so. Trim after recording opens every recording in the trimming window as soon as it ends (see Trimming). The choices are remembered. Windows 10 places a new icon among the hidden ones, behind the arrow; it can be dragged from there onto the taskbar.
The i button in the window's title row (or About in the icon's menu) shows the version, the author, the homepage and the licence, where the settings are kept, and the interface language: as in Windows, English or Russian; the choice applies at once and is remembered.
Closing the window during a recording completes the file first.
One copy of qrec runs at a time. Starting it again brings the running window to the front, even from the notification area, and an MP4 file given to the second start (Explorer's Open with) opens in the running copy's trimming window. The command line modes run alongside the window.
The sound is captured with the process loopback of Windows 10 version 2004 and later: the audio engine delivers everything that is played by other programs, in floating-point stereo at 48 kHz, regardless of the output device and without "Stereo Mix" or a virtual cable. qrec's own sounds, if any, are left out. Programs that play in WASAPI exclusive mode bypass the audio engine and are not captured.
The sound of one program is the process loopback of that program and its child processes (a browser plays from a child process). The audio engine delivers it after the program's volume in the Volume Mixer: at 25 % it is 12 dB quieter, as it is heard. With Boost, qrec follows that volume during the recording and divides the sound by it, so the program is recorded as at 100 %, and a change of the volume during the recording does not reach the file. Up to 1 % is undone (a gain of up to 100); a program muted in the mixer is recorded as silence. The device's master volume does not reach the capture when the device applies it in hardware; otherwise the recording follows it. When a program has several sessions at different volumes, the loudest one is taken.
On earlier builds of Windows 10, the default output device is opened for loopback capture instead, which captures what is played through that device.
The audio and the video share one clock, the performance counter of Windows: a packet of sound is placed at the time it was recorded, gaps are filled with silence, and the video frames are stamped at fixed intervals of the same clock, so the two stay in step.
- Displays with HDR enabled are not supported yet: the capture delivers 16-bit floating point frames, which the program does not tone-map. Such a display is reported when the recording starts.
- Rotated displays are captured in their native orientation.
- Content that Windows protects from capture (some video players, DRM) appears black, as in any screen capture.
- One area on one monitor; no pause, no microphone, no webcam.
qrec.exe --record SECONDS [--region X,Y,W,H] [--monitor N] [--fps N] [--quality low|medium|high] [--no-audio | --audio-app NAME.exe [--no-boost]] [--no-cursor] [--out FILE]
qrec.exe --cut FILE --from SECONDS --to SECONDS [--out FILE]
qrec.exe --info FILE
qrec.exe FILE.mp4
--record records without the window for the given number of seconds, from a console: --region is on the virtual screen (physical pixels), --monitor counts from 1 with the primary display first, --audio-app records the sound of one program, named by its executable (firefox.exe) or its full path, boosted unless --no-boost is given, and the defaults are the whole primary display, 30 frames per second, medium quality, with sound and the pointer, into qrec_<date>_<time>.mp4 in the current folder.
--cut copies the stretch between the two times into a new file without re-encoding, from the key frame at or before --from up to the frame before --to, into <name>.cut.mp4 beside the source unless --out names the file. --info prints the size, the frame rate and the length of a file and the times of its key frames. A file given on its own opens the window with the trimming window on that file.
Requirements: Windows 10 or later, stable Rust with the MSVC toolchain and Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools.
cargo build --release # target\release\qrec.exe
cargo test
The window is drawn by egui/eframe through OpenGL (glow). Screen capture, colour conversion, encoding, muxing and audio capture use Windows itself: Desktop Duplication, the Direct3D 11 video processor, Media Foundation and WASAPI, through the windows crate. The executable links the C runtime in (.cargo/config.toml, crt-static), so qrec needs nothing beyond Windows. Setting the environment variable QREC_TRACE=1 writes what the recording does to stderr (a debug build has a console; a release build shows it when started from one).
The release script builds the executable, the installer and the portable archive (Inno Setup 6 is required):
python tools/make_release.py # tests, release build, installer, archive
python tools/make_release.py --no-tests # the same without cargo test
python tools/make_release.py --install # then a silent installation over the installed copy
The files are written to dist; the version is taken from Cargo.toml. The script first closes a qrec.exe running from target\release. The installer script is tools/setup.iss; the installer icon is written by qrec.exe --export-icon <file.ico>.
Releases on GitHub are built by the Release workflow (.github/workflows/release.yml). After the version in Cargo.toml is updated and committed, pushing a matching tag publishes a release with the installer and the portable archive:
git tag v0.1.0
git push origin v0.1.0
Running the workflow manually (Actions → Release → Run workflow) only builds the files and attaches them to the run, without a release.
qrec is built on the following open-source projects:
- egui / eframe: the user interface and the window;
- windows-rs: the Windows APIs from Rust;
- Inno Setup: the installer.
qrec is distributed under the MIT license.