Captura: a Windows screen recorder that also logs mouse clicks and keystrokes

What Captura records, and the audience it was built for

Captura is a Windows desktop application written in C# on WPF. The README lists its scope plainly: take screenshots, capture screencasts in AVI, GIF or MP4, capture with or without the mouse cursor, record specific regions, screens or windows, and optionally record mouse clicks or keystrokes as overlays. It can also capture from a webcam and mix audio recorded from the microphone and the speaker output.

The audience follows from those capabilities. If you produce software walkthroughs, bug reports or tutorial videos on Windows and you want the viewer to see where you clicked and what you typed, the click and keystroke capture is the feature that distinguishes Captura from a plain screen recorder. The same applies to anyone who needs a webcam inset alongside a screen recording without assembling two separate tools. Region capture and per-window capture matter for people who cannot or do not want to record an entire desktop.

The README also states that the repository is no longer actively maintained, and points to a browser-based successor hosted on the project's site. That statement is the single most important fact for anyone evaluating Captura today: the feature set is fixed, and the successor is a different product with different constraints.

How the capture pipeline is put together

The repository layout shows a single .NET solution under src/, with build orchestration in build.cake and appveyor.yml, and packaging split between Inno.iss for the Windows installer and a choco/ directory for the Chocolatey package. That layout tells you the project was distributed as a desktop binary, not as a library you embed.

The README links a dedicated FFmpeg document under docs/, which indicates that encoding is delegated to FFmpeg rather than implemented in C#. The practical consequence is that output formats, codecs and container behaviour depend on the FFmpeg build the application uses, not on the application alone. A format listed in the feature list is therefore only available if the corresponding encoder is present in that FFmpeg build.

Capture sources are enumerated at the application level: region, screen, window and webcam. Audio is described as a mix of microphone and speaker output, which means the application has to open two input streams and combine them before encoding. Mouse clicks and keystrokes are separate capture channels layered onto the recording, which is why they can be toggled independently of the video source. The README does not document the internal architecture beyond these user-facing capabilities, so anything more specific about threading, buffering or frame pacing cannot be confirmed.

Installing Captura with Chocolatey or a portable build

The README gives two installation routes. The first is Chocolatey, which installs the packaged release from an elevated PowerShell session. The second is downloading a portable or setup build from the latest release page.

choco install captura -y

After the package installs, Captura appears as a normal Windows application and can be launched from the Start menu. The -y flag suppresses the confirmation prompt, which is what you want in a scripted setup.

The README also points to the releases page for portable and setup builds, so if you prefer not to use Chocolatey, download the build that matches your needs and run it directly. The portable build is the one to choose when you want to keep the tool off the system package manager entirely.

For development builds, the README directs readers to docs/CI.md rather than describing the process inline. System requirements and build notes live in docs/System-Requirements.md and docs/Build.md respectively. The README does not reproduce those requirements in the main text, so check those files before assuming a given Windows version is supported.

Once running, the first useful action is to pick a capture source and an output format. The README lists region, screen and window as the source options, and AVI, GIF or MP4 as the screencast outputs. Hotkeys are configurable, and the project documents them on its site under a hotkeys page rather than in the README.

The maintenance status is the real constraint

The README opens with a notice that the repository is no longer actively maintained. The most recent release listed is v9.0.0-beta4 from 2020-03-26, and the two releases before it are v9.0.0-beta3.1 and v9.0.0-beta3 from 2019. That release history matters more than any feature list: the newest published artifact is a beta, and it is several years old.

There is a tension between that release history and the repository's last push, which was on 2026-05-25. A repository can receive commits without producing a tagged release, and the README's own notice is explicit about the project's status. Anyone reading the commit history as a signal of active development should weigh it against the README's statement and the absence of a stable 9.0.0 release.

The practical failure mode is not that Captura stops working tomorrow. It is that when it does break, for example after a Windows update changes a capture API or an FFmpeg build changes an encoder name, there is no maintainer committed to fixing it. The README offers a browser-based successor as the forward path, which is a clear signal about where the author's attention went.

Where Captura is the wrong tool

Captura is Windows-only. The topics list includes windows and wpf, and the installer is an Inno Setup script. If your team records on macOS or Linux, Captura is not a candidate at all, and the related search traffic for screen recording on those platforms reflects a need this project does not serve.

The second mismatch is anyone who needs a supported, versioned product with a release cadence. The README says the project is no longer actively maintained, and the latest release is v9.0.0-beta4. If your workflow requires a vendor or maintainer to respond to regressions, Captura cannot provide that. The README's pointer to a browser-based successor is the author's own answer to this, and it is a different tool with different capabilities.

The third case is automated, headless capture on a server. The README mentions a command-line interface marked BETA and links a command-line document, but the application is a WPF desktop program. Nothing in the README describes a headless mode, a service, or a container image, so treating Captura as a server-side recording component would be an assumption the documentation does not support.

Finally, if you need the click and keystroke overlay specifically, verify it in the build you install. The README lists it as a feature, but the documentation does not describe how the overlay is rendered or how it behaves across multiple monitors.

How Captura differs from OBS Studio

OBS Studio is the obvious alternative for Windows screen recording, and the difference in approach is architectural. OBS is built around a scene graph: you compose sources into scenes, switch between them, and stream or record the result. Captura is built around a single capture session with a chosen source, which is why its feature list reads as a set of capture options rather than as a compositor.

That distinction shows up in the click and keystroke capture. Captura treats mouse clicks and keystrokes as first-class capture channels you can enable or disable per recording, which is aimed at tutorial and bug-report use cases. OBS reaches similar results through plugins and input overlays, but the overlay is not part of the core recording model.

The other difference is project health. OBS Studio is a large, actively developed project with a plugin ecosystem. Captura's README states it is no longer actively maintained. If long-term support is a requirement, that gap decides the comparison on its own, regardless of features.

Where Captura still wins is simplicity for a narrow task: launch, pick a region or window, enable click and keystroke capture, record to MP4 or GIF, stop. For that workflow, OBS asks you to build a scene first, which is more setup than the task needs.

Licence and the cost of running an unmaintained build

Captura is released under the MIT License, and the README links a licenses/ directory covering its dependencies. MIT is permissive: you can use, modify and redistribute the code, including in commercial settings, provided the licence and copyright notice are preserved. That is the general shape of the licence, not legal advice, and the dependency licences in licenses/ are separate from the project's own and should be reviewed on their own terms.

The upgrade cost is where the practical calculation sits. Because the README states the project is no longer actively maintained and the newest listed release is v9.0.0-beta4 from 2020-03-26, there is no upgrade path to plan for in the usual sense. Your choices are to stay on the build you have, to fork the repository and maintain it yourself, or to move to the browser-based successor the README points to. Forking means owning the C#/WPF codebase, the Inno Setup packaging and the Chocolatey package definition, plus whatever FFmpeg version your build depends on.

The FFmpeg dependency is the part most likely to age badly. The README links docs/FFmpeg.md, which means the encoder is an external component. If a future FFmpeg release changes or removes an encoder that Captura calls by name, the installed application may fail to produce a given output format. Nothing in the README describes how Captura resolves or pins its FFmpeg build.

Editorial conclusion

Captura fits Windows users who need offline screen, webcam and audio capture with click and keystroke overlays, and who are comfortable running a codebase whose README states it is no longer actively maintained. It is a poor fit for anyone who needs macOS or Linux support, a maintained release cadence, or a recorder whose behaviour is documented for every output format. Before adopting it, verify that a current build runs on your Windows version, that your chosen output format is actually available in the installed build, and that the bundled or system FFmpeg version matches what the docs expect.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. License: MIT
2. MathewSachin/Captura on GitHub
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases