vTask

Vista Software's TinyTask is a neat, little macro recorder that can automate just about any process or sequence of actions on your PC. It not only records and saves macros but also compiles them, turning your recorded macros into executable programs. At just 33KB, TinyTask truly is tiny. It's portable freeware for Windows that doesn't need to be installed; just extract the program and click it to run it from any folder or drive, including portable storage devices such as USB thumb drives.

TinyTask's user interface is tiny, too, with a slim window displaying six icons: Open, Save, Record, Play, Compile, and Options, which include playback speed, hot keys, and the ability to remember settings in INI files. The Help file is actually a Quick Start guide listing shortcut keys, but that's about all you need since TinyTask is extremely easy to use: Press "Record," do something on your PC, stop the recording, and press "Play." TinyTask will repeat whatever you just did, whether it's open a file, folder, or program; navigate to a Web site; or more elaborate sequences. Click "Save" and name the recording to run it later. If your media player tried to play TinyTask's REC files, just right-click the file, select "Open With," and browse to TinyTask's program file.

We pressed Tiny Task's "Rec" button, browsed to a music file, right-clicked it, and selected "Play." We pressed "Rec" again to stop the recording, and then named and saved our macro. We closed our media player, browsed to our macro recording, and clicked TinyTask's "Play" button. Our cursor traveled across the screen by itself, opened the folder, and played our music file. Turning our REC file into an EXE was even easier: Press "Compile" and save the file as an executable: That's all there is to it. We saved our newly created program to the desktop and clicked it. Our macro executed the same series of steps in the original recording. TinyTask is small but effective and recommended for anyone who wants to automate computer actions.