How to use Windows 10’s built-in screen recording tool

Windows 10 can record a video of your screen without any third-party software. Here’s how to find and use Windows 10’s easy-to-use Capture utility to record your screen.

The Game Bar isn’t just for gaming

Windows 1

0’s screen recording tool is part of the Xbox Game Bar. Despite what the name implies, the Game Bar is for more than just gaming. In this guide, we’ll use it to take screenshots.

The tool records a video of your screen in H.264 MP4 format.

RELATED: 6 great features in Windows 10’s new Game Bar

Screen capture is part of the “Capture” widget, which can be accessed through the Game Bar’s “Widget Menu” feature. To use the Widget menu, you need the Windows 10 May 2019 Update or later.

Launch Screen Capture on Windows 10

First, press Windows + G to launch the game bar. You can also open the Start menu and start the “Xbox Game Bar” application.

(If the Game Bar overlay doesn’t appear, go to Settings> Gaming> Xbox Game Bar. Make sure the Game Bar is “On” here. You can also check the hotkey. You can set “Open Game Bar” to any key combination instead of Windows + G.)

In the Game Bar overlay screen, look for the “Recording” window.

If you don’t see it, click the Widget menu icon on the left. It looks like multiple bulleted lines on the left.

A drop-down list will appear; click on ‘Capture’. The “Capture” shortcut may also be in the Game Bar toolbar.

How to start recording your screen

Locate the “Capture” widget panel in the overlay. There are four buttons on the Capture widget (from left to right):

• Screenshot: Takes a screenshot of the active window.
• Record last 30 seconds: Records the last 30 seconds.
• Start recording: Start recording your active window.
• Turn on the microphone while recording: When this option is enabled, Windows 10 will record audio from your computer’s microphone and include it in the recording.

You will see text below the buttons. This is how you know what the active window is, or what is being recorded. For example, if you are browsing the Internet, the title of the open tab will be displayed.

To record your screen, you first need to decide if you want to use your microphone, which is useful when you’re trying to explain something on the screen.

Then click the Start recording button.

The screen recording will start and you will see a small toolbar in the corner of the screen. It shows the playing time of the recording and it also has buttons to stop recording and switch the microphone.

When you are done, click the Stop icon to end the recording.

In the Capture widget, click “Show All Captures” to view your recording.

Your recording is at the top of the list. Click the folder icon to see all recordings and screenshots in File Explorer.

By default, these recordings are saved in your Windows user folder at C: Users NAME Videos Captures.

By the way, you can also start recording your screen by pressing Windows + Alt + R by default. Go to Settings> Gaming> Xbox Game Bar to customize these keyboard shortcuts.

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