Does FRAPS work on Windows 10?

I noticed a person in the Myst-Uru community mentioning that FRAPS is not working on their Windows 10 machine. I am on the verge of updating my main machine to 10. So, what is going on?

First: a visit to the FRAPS website. FRAPS is advertised for Windows up to version 7. The newest version is 3.5.99 released in February 2013… two five-plus years ago. (As of 11/24/2018 still no update.)  Are they going to update it for Windows 10? I can’t find any information to reliably answer that question. I did see some people commenting that the past update rate of several times a year stopped in Feb 2013. Queries using the contact form at FRAPS have mostly gone unanswered.

The June 2015 video shows FRAPS working in Win10 on older hardware. Some searching shows people are having problems with FRAPS on Win10. There is some discussion of the issue in the FRAPS Windows 10 Issues thread at the Microsoft forums.

Update 11/2018: No new FRAPS updates, 5+ years. I now consider FRAPS dead. Researching for ways to get FRAPS working on Win10… I find no good fixes or solutions. Tom’s Hardware Review and other tech sites have no answers.

In this thread, one person says they did get an email back from the FRAPS people saying an update for Windows 10 is in progress. (I take this as hearsay.) There is no ETA. This is from a post in August 2015. The date of the email was not included. That it was from at least four months ago and considering their former development rate, I am not very confident an update is coming.

In other places people were pointing to the problems with FRAPS; inefficient memory use, slower frame rates, and the inability to play FRAPS video capture in Win10. For the last problem just open FRAPS recorded videos in Windows Media Player then they play.

One of the consistent problems across various video capture apps and Window 10 is not being able to record the desktop. So, showing opening a program and finding files can be a problem.

Windows 10 Solutions

Windows 10 does have screen capture built in. Since Windows Vista, there has been a feature named Snipping Tool that does single image screen capture. I love it because it grabs the entire screen then lets me crop to just the part if the screen I want. It also has a handy ‘pencil’ for marking in the image. But, it has no video capture ability.

Update 11/2018: The Snipping Tool in Windows 10 has been improved. A major improvement in my thinking is the addition of DELAY. I can set a delay and open drop-down-menus and highlight a selection for Snip to capture. Handy.

When running a game or app Windows 10 does have video capture as the video above shows.

Press Windows-Key + G to bring up the XBox Game Bar… or DVR Game Bar, I see people using different names.

Once the Xbox app is running you can press the Windows-key + Alt + R to start and stop recording. Pressing the Windows-key + Alt + PrtScr-key to grab a single frame screen capture.

The captures are placed into the standard Microsoft folders. Videos and single frame captures go into:

C:\Users\[Win_login_ID]\Video\Capture

Or in Explorer…

Video\Capture

You can also find the videos and snapshots in the Xbox app.

Playing with this on my Win10 laptop (HD4000) I see very little drop in frame rate, 0 to 2 FPS. My laptop does 14 to 21 FPS (in SL) most of the time. So, this looks to be a usable free alternative to FRAPS.

One problem is: to change settings on the recorder, one must log into Xbox… which Windows 10 will let you do. I think it sucks to have to log into some online service to change some part of my operating system. But, if you can live with all the defaults…

You can find lots of articles about this new feature of Windows 10. There are a couple more neat features covered in the articles not mentioned in the above video.

Alternatives

If you are making tutorials where you need to show the desktop and Explorer, you’ll need a third-party app. According to cNET, there are about 180 completely free video capture programs. () are for Windows 8. cNET does not have a filter for Win10 as I write this.

Most free programs are free to download or free to try. To use for any more than a trial, you’ll have to fork out some money.

  • OBS: Open Broadcaster Software – I covered this in an earlier article: How To Stream Second Life to YouTube Gaming. Currently my choice. (6/6/2017 – Now my favorite. 11/2018 – Still my choice.)
  • EZVid – (Vista / 7 / 8) Capture and editing.
  • CamStudio (Free alternative to Camtasia)
  • HyperCam
  • Debut Video Recording
  • Movavi Screen Capture Studio – There is retail (US$29) and free 7-day trial version. The free version is a useless version for anything you might want to do. But, just playing with it, I liked it. If I decide I do need to replace FRAPS, this will probably be my replacement.
  • Adobe: Captivate 2019 – Not free, US$30/month and not part of the standard Creative Cloud package.
  • TechSmith: Camtasia – Also not free, US$299.

cNET: A list of software for Win 8, free. HyperCam is by far the most downloaded. Screencast-O-Matic is a close second. WARNING: I am not a fan of cNET/Download.com as it takes great care to avoid also installing adware.

17 thoughts on “Does FRAPS work on Windows 10?

  1. I recommend [a href=http://www.d3dgear.com]D3DGear game recording software[/a]. To me, it is the best [a href=http://www.d3dgear.com/fraps-alternative]Fraps Alternative[/a]

  2. I’ve been having issues with serious lag when recording with fraps on WIn10 for Minecraft & Creativerse. Will the XBox recording app record those games in full screen?

  3. I have emailed fraps support and got a response saying they are currently working on a new update that can support desktop screen capture Windows 10

  4. My Screen Recorder is one of the best screen recording software. It records your screen and audio from the speakers or your voice from the microphone – or both simultaneously. The recordings are clear and look great when played back on your website, uploaded to YouTube or used in your presentation. One thing often overlooked – It will record directly to standard compressed format that works with any video editor or any tool, no conversion required. And, the file sizes are small, making them easy to upload or distribute.
    http://www.deskshare.com/screen-recorder.aspx

  5. I suspect that since Win 10 operates in the same manner as Spyware and is always monitoring what you are doing and uploading that to Microsoft that when you are using FRAPS that data is being sent also? Which would be a heavy impact on your system. A Senior I know has a Laptop that is constantly slow and in Task Manager you can see before he even uses a program the cpu is in 99% use and the Hard Drive activity is very high also. If I turn off all the Telemetry in the OS that drastically reduces usage. Unfortunately Windows updates turn all that stuff back on. I have Win 10 in Dual Boot and I have FRAPS so I will check since my version of WIN 10 has the MS monitoring 100% off to my knowledge.

    • Recorded video isn’t streamed to MS. MS is interested in what the computer is used for and how not the massive content their users create.

      Are you turning off telemetry or disabling it?

      When you see high disk activity check for memory paging and malware.

      The resource monitor will show what apps are reading from and writing to disk. There is a section for network to.

  6. “Omg this post was really helpful I havent been able to record any singing videos cause I couldnt reinstall my logitech web software iv been trying for days! Thanks to ur video I got the software so helpful really appreciate it
    Thank u so…much

  7. Very clear and helpful post! I haven’t used fraps but get this name from some top screen recorder list… So it means Fraps is still workable on certain Windows 10 machines? I just download it and notice it’s not free and requires a registration for a normal usage. Besides Fraps, some other programs are also among my trial list like OBS, Ezvide and movavi from your list and exluded Apowersoft, RecMaster…

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