PriceFree, included with Windows

PlatformsWindows 10 and Windows 11

TypeSimple single-track recorder

Best forLectures, meetings, memos, long sessions

System audioNo, microphone input only

Our score3.8 / 5

Most people's opinion of Windows' built-in recorder was formed by the Windows 10 version, which was called Voice Recorder, saved everything as M4A whether you liked it or not, and offered almost no settings. Windows 11 replaced it with a rewritten app called Sound Recorder, and the new one is genuinely worth a look before you download anything.

Press the Windows key, type "Sound Recorder", press Enter. It opens in about a second. That speed is a real feature when a lecture has already started.

What the Windows 11 version added

Input device selection: pick the headset instead of whatever the system decided, from inside the app
Format choice: M4A by default, with MP3, WMA, FLAC and WAV available in settings. FLAC and WAV mean you can keep a lossless master of something important
Audio quality settings, from a small-file setting up to high quality
Markers you can drop during recording, then jump between afterwards, genuinely useful in a two-hour lecture
A visible waveform while recording, so you can see the microphone is actually receiving something
Playback speed control for reviewing recordings faster
A proper recording list with rename, share and open-in-folder, so nothing gets lost

On top of that, newer Windows 11 builds on some hardware add automatic transcription of recordings, which turns a lecture into searchable text without a third-party service. Availability depends on your Windows version, region and language, so treat it as a bonus rather than a guarantee.

The reliability argument. Sound Recorder writes to disk continuously and keeps recording if you minimise it, switch apps or lock the screen. For anything you cannot repeat, whether a lecture, an interview or a one-off meeting, that dependability outweighs any feature list. A browser tab cannot promise the same.

What it will not do

Editing is limited to trimming the start and end. There is no noise reduction, no normalisation, no fades, no splitting a file into parts, no multitrack, and no effects of any kind. If the recording came out quiet or noisy, Sound Recorder has nothing to offer. You export the file and open it in Audacity or Ocenaudio.

It also captures the microphone only. Recording a Teams call, a stream or anything playing through your speakers needs OBS Studio or a virtual audio cable.

And it is Windows only, obviously. The macOS and iOS equivalent is Voice Memos, which occupies the same niche with a similar philosophy: dependable capture, minimal editing, everything organised in a list.

How it compares to recording in a browser

The recorder on our home page beats it on convenience: nothing to open, works on any operating system, and trims and cuts silence before exporting. Sound Recorder beats it on safety, because the audio is on disk the whole time rather than in memory, and on session length, because a three-hour recording will not exhaust your RAM.

Use the browser for quick things. Use Sound Recorder when losing the recording would be a problem.

What we like

Already installed, opens instantly, nothing to configure
Writes to disk continuously, so it is safe for long sessions
Device selection and multiple formats including WAV and FLAC
Markers make long recordings navigable
Keeps every recording organised in one list
Transcription on supported Windows 11 builds

What we don't

Editing stops at trimming the ends
No noise reduction or level correction at all
Microphone only, no system audio
Single track, no layering or mixing
Windows 10 version is far more limited than the Windows 11 rewrite

Verdict: 3.8 / 5

Judged as a recorder rather than a studio, it is very good: fast, dependable, and free with the operating system. For students and anyone in meetings all day, it is the right default, and the Windows 11 version fixed most of what people complained about.

Pair it with a free editor for anything that needs cleaning up afterwards. That combination covers most people completely, at no cost.

Back to the software guide Audacity review OBS Studio review Record in your browser