On mac I use a program called "Ishowu HD" Cheaper than Camtasia but not as fully equipped http://www.shinywhitebox.com/store/shop.php
On the PC you can use a free, reliable tool from the REAPER developers, licecap: http://www.cockos.com/licecap/
The compression is low so you need plenty of disk space.
Fran
My own personal recommendation - BB FlashBack
http://www.bbsoftware.co.uk/bbflashback.aspx
They have free version also - http://www.bbsoftware.co.uk/BBFlashBack_FreePlayer.aspx
It is simple and very effective.
I also recommend Ishowu HD for mac.
If you want to do anything professional like zooming into the image or closeups etc there's really no way around it, you have to recreate the screen in a vector format.
Magix video editing software does it as well, one can choose which sound source (if different cards), set the crop and should the mouse appear on the recording or not.
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