Yes, you can build an interactive demo of software that is not a web app. Demo Maker Pro captures Windows applications, VM windows and thick clients, and puts those steps in the same walkthrough as real-HTML browser steps.
Interactive demo software for desktop applications works by photographing a window rather than reading its markup. In Demo Maker Pro you click Record Desktop in the Windows app, switch to the program you want to show, press the capture key (F9 by default) once per screen, and click Stop. Each press becomes a step you can then target, annotate, reorder and publish.
Two things are worth knowing before you compare vendors. First, desktop capture is no longer rare, Supademo, Guideflow, Storylane and Arcade all publish macOS and Windows desktop recorders, so nobody should sell it to you as a unique capability. Second, and more importantly, every one of them captures the desktop as screenshots or video, never as DOM. So does Demo Maker Pro. There is no DOM inside a native Windows application to read; nothing can invent one. Supademo's own documentation states that HTML capture is Chrome-extension-only, and the same physical limit applies to everyone else.
What differs is what happens on either side of that limit: whether the browser half of the same walkthrough is real HTML, and whether the finished demo is a file you keep.
Three controls do most of the work. Desktop Capture runs from the Windows application alone and needs no browser extension.
Press F9 and you get one screen. Press it again and you get the next. You are choosing moments, not trimming footage. The key is configurable, and while a session is running that key belongs to Demo Maker Pro and does not reach the program you are capturing.
By default the capture takes whatever is in front. Turn on Capture one window only and it pins to a chosen program instead, so you can read notes, check a ticket or move other windows around without them landing in your demo.
Each desktop step arrives with its target box in the middle of the screen. You drag it onto the button, field or menu item you are pointing at, because a screenshot, unlike browser capture, does not know where you clicked.
Whatever was on screen is captured, including an open menu. If you want to show a dropdown expanded, open it and then press the capture key, the menu is part of the picture.
Desktop capture exists for the interfaces that HTML capture cannot reach:
If your workflow is entirely inside Chrome or Edge, use browser capture instead, it produces real markup, and that is a materially better result.
A desktop step is a picture. The text inside it is part of that picture, not selectable content. A viewer cannot highlight a field label, copy an example value out of the screen, or find a word with the browser's search. Screen readers get nothing from inside the image either.
That is the real trade for reaching something HTML cannot, and it applies to every vendor with a desktop recorder, not just this one. Anyone telling you their native-app capture keeps text live is describing something that does not exist.
There is a second consequence worth planning around. Because a desktop step is a fixed image, a change in the underlying application means re-capturing that screen. Browser steps do not have this problem: a single changed screen can be re-recorded on its own because it is real markup.
One note applies to both kinds of step: capture at the size you intend to present at. Demo Maker Pro scales a demo down to fit a smaller screen but never enlarges it beyond the recorded size, so a 1920px capture shown on a wider monitor has space around it. 1440 or 1920 wide is a sensible default.
Verified from vendors' own documentation, September 2026. "Not documented" means the vendor's materials do not describe it, not that it is impossible.
| Product | Desktop capture | DOM inside a native app | Self-contained HTML file you host |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demo Maker Pro | Yes, Windows | No, images | Yes, Export HTML |
| Supademo | Yes, macOS and Windows | No, HTML capture is Chrome-extension-only | Not documented, hosted Offline Demos Player |
| Guideflow | Yes, macOS and Windows | No, screenshots or video | Not documented |
| Storylane | Yes, macOS and Windows | No, screenshots or video | Not documented |
| Arcade | Yes, macOS and Windows | No, screenshots or video | Not documented, offline is Enterprise |
| Navattic | No native desktop capture, native apps route to image, GIF or video Media Captures | No | Not documented, a PWA on Enterprise |
The desktop column is a tie. The third column is not: no competitor documents exporting a self-contained HTML file that the customer hosts. Every "offline" feature on the market is a vendor player, Navattic's is a PWA on Enterprise, Supademo's is a hosted Offline Demos Player, Walnut's is a paid add-on, Arcade's is Enterprise, Reprise's is a downloadable player application. A fuller breakdown lives on the comparison page and the self-hosted page.
Most real workflows are not purely one or the other. Someone raises a request in a web portal, then an administrator finishes the job in a Windows console.
Browser steps and desktop steps land in the same step list in the order you took them, so one walkthrough can start in Chrome and continue into a Windows application. The browser half stays real HTML and CSS, captured inside your own already-logged-in Chrome or Edge session, with text that stays selectable and searchable, and fonts and spacing that survive. The desktop half is images. You get the best available fidelity for each part of the process instead of dropping the whole demo to the lowest common denominator.
That distinction matters commercially too. HTML capture is an expensive tier elsewhere: Supademo puts it on Growth at $350/mo billed annually, Guideflow from the $499/mo annual tier, Arcade on Enterprise at custom pricing, and Walnut's entry plan is Ignite at $575/mo billed annually. Demo Maker Pro starts at $59/mo on Creator with both capture modes included.
Nothing downstream treats a desktop step as a second-class citizen.
Steps appear in the left sidebar. Reorder by dragging or through the step's ⋯ menu, where you can also rename and delete. Targets can be restyled, resized or turned off; with the target off, the step advances by the tooltip's Back and Next buttons, which is what you want for an explanatory screen. Tooltips carry the words, sit anywhere, and can be given an appearance delay so the screen lands before the text.
Publish > Export HTML writes a single self-contained HTML file. Everything the demo needs is inside it. Host it on your own server, embed it, or email it. The file keeps working regardless of your subscription and does not contact our servers, including the desktop steps.
Publish > Publish to DemoMakerPro returns a shareable link on demos.demomakerpro.com. Publishing the same project again updates that demo in place, so a link you already sent stays current. A published link is unguessable but not password protected, so treat it as public.
Viewers need no account, no licence, no extension and no install. The demo opens in any browser. Step-by-step detail for both capture modes is in the documentation, and the Windows application recorder walkthrough covers the recording procedure in full.
Technical trainers teaching software that cannot be handed out as a sandbox, internal enablement teams documenting an ERP or a ticketing console, and solutions engineers whose product has an installed component. If your subject is a browser application and always will be, the HTML capture page is the more useful read. See also interactive software training.
The editor itself is a Windows application published by qwerty2 LLC; the code-signed installer's publisher line reads qwerty2 LLC. Finished demos open anywhere.
Seven days free. A card is taken at signup and charged nothing that day. Capture a Windows application, mix in a browser workflow, and export one HTML file you keep.
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