I'm looking for a decent program to allow me to put together scripts to control other Windows applications (must run in Windows XP). Such a program should have Recording ability to record keystrokes and mouse events, control looping, hopefully allow nested looped recorded macros, etc.. It should be relatively inexpensive - if not free. And at least offer some free demo usage time so I can make sure it does what I need.

I'm trying to automate a few programs for a very repetitive task. I've done a few searches but none of the programs I've found are quite ideal. A long time ago I was searching for some other (unrelated) software and kept finding this type of program. now i want something and everything I come up with isn't convenient enough or simple enough - or it's put together by someone with no concept of software design and costs $200.

Any suggestions welcome.
Bruno