There are many simple tools for recording macros for Windows platform available in the market, on the lines of the excel macro recorder.

Back in the days of Windows 3.1, the OS had a utility called the Recorder that recorded mouse clicks and keystrokes for repetitive tasks that made life a lot easier. But in the era of Windows 95 and above, this handy and simple tool was done away with; now the only place you find a macro recorder is in Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet and Word. The drawback, it only records repetitive tasks in excel and word independently and has limited scope and no scalability.

The handiness and usefulness of this tool was sorely missed and has made way for many independent software developers to create a Windows macro recorder.

One can do many things with a simple windows macro tool like change the screen resolution, change the themes on the desktop and switching between different folder options while viewing Windows Explorer to name a few.

The next generation of Windows Macro recorders is not only a tool to automate simple and routine tasks, but also complex tasks. The Windows macro recorders can automate anything that generally requires multiple steps and cannot be done by a simple one line command.

These programs can automate IT tasks such as copying data into a database, importing and exporting data from a spreadsheet, automating report generation to testing applications and automating business processes. Some recorders even have advanced web recorders to automate web-based tasks such as web data extraction and screen scrapping.

The user-friendliness and ease of use of all the macro recorders available in the market differs and so do the features. Some windows macro recorders available in the market can do many complex tasks while others just do the routine system administrative tasks. Which macro recorder you purchase depends on the use and requirements.