Desktop app / Evidence recorder
Record the evidence
a browser tab can't reach
Screenata Recorder captures your screen, your clicks, and the app you clicked in, then turns the walkthrough into evidence steps in your workspace. Native apps, system settings, MDM consoles, anything a Chrome extension can never see.
Version 0.1.0 · August 6, 2026 · Free with any Screenata workspace
Help and Feedback
- Platforms
- macOS + Win
- Per recording
- 60 min
- Keystrokes captured
- 0
- With any workspace
- Free
Downloads
Every build, one place
Windows: the installer isn’t code-signed yet, so SmartScreen shows an unknown-publisher prompt on first run, choose More info → Run anyway. macOS is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized.
What it's for
The controls that live outside the browser
Features
What the recorder does
A whole screen or a single window
Pick a display or one app window, add a microphone to narrate, and turn on the camera bubble if the walkthrough needs a face. The panel remembers the selection, so the menu-bar item can start the next recording without opening anything.
Clicks that know what they clicked
Every click is resolved against the OS accessibility tree, macOS AX and Windows UI Automation, so a step reads “clicked the Save button” instead of a pair of screen coordinates. Scrolls and drags are recorded the same way.
The recording becomes evidence steps
Stop the recording and the upload finalizes, Screenata extracts the steps, and the review opens in your browser. What lands in the vault is a walkthrough mapped to a test, not a video file someone has to scrub through.
Auto-blur for password managers
Bring 1Password, Bitwarden, Proton Pass, or Keychain Access to the front and the frame blurs on its own, then clears when you switch away. The watched list is a plain JSON file you can extend with any app of your own.
Uploads while you record
Chunks stream to your workspace during the recording, so Stop only has to flush the tail instead of pushing an hour of video. A local copy is always written to a Screenata Recordings folder on disk, which means a dropped network costs you an upload, never the recording.
Starts from the test that needs it
Hit record on a test in the web app and the handoff opens the recorder over a screenata:// link with that test already attached, so the finished evidence lands against the right control instead of an inbox.
Screenshots
See it in action
A control bar, not a cockpit
Once recording starts the panel gets out of the way and leaves a small floating bar: elapsed time, pause, stop, and discard. Drag it anywhere. Everything else, the blur, the click resolution, the upload, happens without you thinking about it.
Desktop recording · 01:12
Disk encryption enforced on managed laptops
- 00:04Clicked “Privacy & Security”System Settings
- 00:11Clicked the “FileVault” tabSystem Settings
- 00:19Toggled “FileVault” → onSystem Settingsvalue: on
- 00:26Typed 38 keysSystem Settingsno content
- 00:41Clicked “Save” · admin.google.com/ac/securityGoogle Chrome
Recorded on macOS · local copy in ~/Movies · streamed to workspace while recording
What the auditor sees
The recording arrives as steps, each one timestamped and named after the control you touched, with the app it lived in. Typing shows up as a count with no content attached. The whole walkthrough is bound to the test it was recorded for.
Getting started
Recording in about three minutes
Step 01
Install the app
Open the disk image and drag Screenata Recorder to Applications, or run the Windows installer. Updates arrive on their own after that.
Step 02
Grant permissions, sign in
Onboarding walks through Screen Recording, Accessibility, and Microphone, with Camera optional. Sign in with a code sent to your work email, then pick the organization to record into.
Step 03
Record, then review
Choose a screen or window and press Start Recording. The floating bar pauses, stops, or discards. Stop uploads the tail, extracts the steps, and opens the review in your browser.
Requirements
What it needs to run
macOS
- macOS 11 Big Sur or later
- Apple Silicon and Intel builds
- Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple
Windows
- Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit
- Installs per user, no admin rights needed
- Same feature set as the macOS build
Permissions
- Screen Recording, to capture the screen
- Accessibility, to identify what you clicked
- Microphone to narrate, Camera optional
Privacy & control
A screen recorder you can point at your own admin console
Typing is counted, never captured
Keystrokes are aggregated into bursts that record how many keys and when, never which ones. Named shortcuts like ⌘S are kept because the shortcut is the action. Control values are read only from checkboxes, radios, and sliders, never from a text field.
Blur covers the metadata too
While blur is engaged the recorder also stops resolving accessibility elements and window titles, so a password manager can't leak through the sidecar data after being hidden in the video.
URLs arrive without credentials
Browser clicks keep the page URL because an auditor needs to see where the setting lives, but credential-shaped query parameters are stripped first. Navigation params like ?tab=billing survive; tokens and session keys don't.
FAQ
Questions about the desktop app
- Which platforms does Screenata Recorder support?
- macOS 11 Big Sur or later, on both Apple Silicon and Intel, and Windows 10 or 11 on 64-bit hardware. There is no Linux build. The macOS download is a .dmg, the Windows download is an .exe installer that installs per user and does not need admin rights.
- Why does Windows warn me about an unknown publisher?
- The Windows installer is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen shows its “Windows protected your PC” dialog on first run. Choose More info, then Run anyway. A signed installer is coming and existing installs will pick it up on their own. The macOS build is already signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple.
- Does the recorder update itself?
- Yes. Installed copies check a public update feed at downloads.screenata.com/desktop/latest and apply new releases in the background, so you only download an installer once. On macOS the update is applied from a notarized archive, which keeps your Screen Recording and Accessibility grants intact across versions.
- Does it record what I type?
- No. Keystrokes are aggregated into bursts that store how many keys were pressed and when, never the characters. Named shortcuts such as ⌘S are recorded because the shortcut is the action being demonstrated. Control values are read only from state-y controls like checkboxes, radios, and sliders, never from text fields, so a password typed on camera has no path into the sidecar data.
- Why does it need Accessibility permission?
- That permission is what lets the recorder ask the operating system what sits under the pointer, so a click becomes “clicked the Require MFA checkbox in System Settings” instead of a coordinate pair. Without it the video still records, but the steps lose the element identity that makes them readable and keeps them valid after the console gets redesigned.
- Where do recordings go?
- Two places. A local copy is always written to a Screenata Recordings folder, in ~/Movies on macOS and your Videos folder on Windows, and chunks stream to your Screenata workspace while you record. If the upload fails the local file is still there, and the app tells you it saved locally rather than pretending the recording is gone.
- Do I need a Screenata account?
- You need one to upload. Signing in with your work email connects the app to your workspace, which is what turns a recording into evidence steps mapped to a test. Without a workspace the app still records and saves the file locally, it just has nowhere to send it.
- How long can a recording be?
- Up to an hour. A walkthrough that runs longer is usually covering several controls at once, and those review better as separate recordings anyway.
- How is this different from the Evidence Collector Chrome extension?
- Scope. The Evidence Collector lives inside Chrome and captures DOM-level detail from admin consoles that render in a tab. Screenata Recorder captures the desktop, so it reaches native apps, system settings panes, installed MDM and endpoint consoles, and workflows that cross between apps. Most teams run both and pick per control.
Explore the platform
Evidence collection
The vault every recording lands in: signing, control mapping, and the freshness lifecycle.
Learn moreScreenshot automation
The browser side of the same job, captured and scored inside Chrome.
Learn moreEvidence Collector extension
The Chrome extension for admin consoles that render in a tab.
Learn moreRecord your first walkthrough today
Install the recorder, click through the setting an auditor keeps asking about, and watch it arrive as evidence steps instead of a video someone has to scrub.