Looking for sound card recorder (not Total Recorder)

[jimdagys]

I am looking for a sound card recorder (free is better) software that will simply record to mp3, what comes out of the computer speaker. Total Recorder works great, but Total Recorder requires a reboot to install. I am on a public computer. I can install software, but a reboot will delete any software. So I need to find a software recorder that doesn't require a reboot. I tried Audacity, but I couldn't seem to get it to record what was coming out of the computer speaker.
Any ideas, I would appreciate.

[jimdagys]

I found this website:
http://all-streaming-media.com/record-audio-stream/direct-sound-recording.htm
that lists some sound card recorders. I tried the first one which is Freecorder:
http://www.applian.com/freecorder4/
It is free and is supposed to install a recording toolbar in your browser (Internet Explorer and Firefox).
I installed Freecorder on this XP public computer. For some reason it did not install the recording toolbar in Firefox, but the recording toolbar installed OK with Internet Explorer.
To test the recording software, I brought up an audio episode of Prairie Home Companion:
http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media_player/popup.php?name=phc/2011/01/01/phc_201101...ime=01:59:00.0
I first started Freecorder and then started the above Prairie Home stream. I got a Microsoft IE error message, but I just closed out the error message.
Without making any setup parameter adjustments, Freecorder recorded the audio perfectly 128kbps (default) mp3 onto the hard drive. There is no record volume adjustment.
Freecorder seems to be a one click idiot proof simple sound card recording software.
It should record any sound that comes out of your computer speaker.
I'd like to hear if anyone else has any experience (good or bad) with this software.