Omnicode Snatch is a quirky desktop recorder

Omnicode Snatch is a free tool for capturing video and audio of what’s happening on your desktop.

The program interface is, well, a surprise. There are no menus, toolbars or panels, no flashy graphics, hi-res icons or even any touches of color -- it’s just a mess of buttons, boxes and lists.

We looked more closely, but it doesn’t get any better. Buttons aren’t grouped logically, they’re not always called what you expect, the interface feels like it’s been thrown together in five minutes (at most).

Fortunately, Snatch is much easier to use than it looks. You can set up the program to record the full screen with a tap, or click "Position", left-click and drag to choose a freehand rectangular area.

This region selection process doesn’t have to stop there. It displays the starting point and size of the area to capture (0,0 to 1920,1080) in text boxes, and if you’d like to refine them a little you can just edit those figures to whatever you like.

The recording can be customized in various ways. You’re able to show or ignore the mouse cursor, set a quality level, optionally have a second sound source (maybe a microphone to add a narration).

Less common extras include a completely customizable frame rate (no presets, choose whatever you like), and the ability to scale the video capture to your preferred preset (50 percent, 320×240, 640×480, 1280×720).

The "Target" box hides another option. By default this points to an Omnicode/Snatch/filename.mp4 destination in your Documents folder, but you can also set the program to save AVI video, OGG or WAV audio.

Once you’re prepared, you can start and stop capture with hotkeys or by clicking buttons. There’s also a Pause button, although that seems an afterthought, positioned in another area of the dialog and without a hotkey.

There’s a very original touch in three sound effects buttons. If something happens in the recording area which you want to highlight, you can tap "Boo", "Laugh" or "Scream" buttons to play those sounds, which of course will then appear in the final video. OK, that is a little bizarre, but it’s also a fun idea which we’ve not seen before.

Overall, Omnicode Snatch desperately needs an interface redesign, but it’s not difficult to use once you understand the basics, and features like the editable scrolling area and video scaling could make it worth the download.

Omnicode Snatch is a free tool for Windows Vista and later.