Record a single window on Mac (not the whole screen)

You want to record a quick walkthrough of one app, but you don’t want your viewer staring at your messy Dock, three other browser windows, and that notification from your bank that just slid in. Full-screen recording is overkill — you just need one window.

Two paths

The free way (built-in macOS)

macOS has window-aware screenshots, but the built-in recorder is less helpful — it only offers full screen and selected region, not “this window.”

1. Press ⌘⇧5 to open the Screenshot toolbar.
2. Pick Record Selected Portion.
3. Drag the rectangle to match the window you want — try to hug the edges closely.
4. Hit Record, do your thing, and stop from the menu bar.

The catch: that rectangle is fixed to the screen, not to the window. If you accidentally drag the window or it auto-resizes, you’ll catch desktop wallpaper around the edges. There’s no built-in “follow this window” recording on macOS.

A workaround is to use QuickTime: File → New Screen Recording gives you the same toolbar with the same limitation, but combined with ⌃⌘F to make the target app fullscreen, you can at least guarantee nothing else shows up.

The Bench way

Bench can record any window by name and stays locked to it — even if you move or resize it mid-recording.

1. Press ⌘⇧6 to start an area recording.
2. In the picker, hover over the window you want. Bench highlights it. Click once to lock the recording to that window.
3. Configure mic and system audio if you need them (the icons in the pre-record bar).
4. Click Start. The recording follows the window — drag it, resize it, send it to another Space, and the video stays clean.
5. Stop from the floating controller. The editor opens with your clip ready to trim or share.

Behind the scenes Bench uses ScreenCaptureKit’s per-window filter, so windows that get partially covered by others won’t have those overlapping windows leak into the recording — only the content of your chosen window is captured.

A small thing worth knowing: if you’ve granted Bench Screen Recording permission in System Settings, that permission covers other apps’ windows too. macOS handles the privacy boundary; you just pick what to record.

When you’re done, hit Share for a bnch.sh link. The link is generated from an unguessable code, and you can delete it from your library any time if you decide later you’d rather not have it floating around.