From tutorials to troubleshooting, game walkthroughs, presentations or just sharing desktop activity, everyone can use a screen recorder occasionally.

This used to mean tracking down and installing some low-level native application, but there are now some surprisingly capable Chrome extensions which just might do everything you need.

Screencastify is the most popular option around, thanks to a strong feature set with a lot of functionality that you won’t find elsewhere.

It’s able to record your webcam, desktop or specific Chrome tabs, and excellent audio support means you can capture microphone, tab or system audio.

Recordings may be saved locally, to Google Drive, or shared on YouTube.

The extensions can record tab activity, your webcam, or sometimes (MediaCore) both

Configurability is another plus, with customisable keyboard shortcuts to start, stop, pause and resume recording (much better than messing around with the mouse if you’re capturing video).

There are two big catches with the free Lite version – a chunky watermark and maximum 10 minute recording time – but upgrading to the 20 Euro commercial product removes those, and adds extras like trimming, cropping and other basic video editing tools.

MediaCore Capture is an entirely free screen recorder with no watermarks, and no irritating “maximum recording time” restrictions.

It can also capture application windows, as well as browser tabs, the desktop or your webcam.

A simple manager displays your recordings, allows rename or delete operations, and downloads files locally on demand.

There’s no editing, no direct upload from the extension (although you can download the file and upload it yourself), and crucially no audio support beyond your microphone.

SnagIt can export short clips as animated GIFs, as well as videos

But if you can live with that, performance was good for us, and it’s all very simple and straightforward to use.

TechSmith’s Snagit has been around on the desktop for years, so it’s no surprise that the Chrome version has some unusual features.

Screenshot support allows capturing of images as well as windows, and you’re able to annotate these with arrows, rectangles, ellipses or text captions.

The finished movie may be shared from Google Drive, uploaded directly to YouTube, or downloaded as an animated GIF (if it’s less than 20 seconds).

Once again audio support is limited to recording your microphone only. But there are no watermarks or limits on the length of the video, Snagit performed well for us – and the four-star Chrome Store rating suggests it’s working for others, too.