Windows Game Bar screen recording: how to use the built-in screen recorder, and its limits

What Game Bar is

Xbox Game Bar is an overlay that comes with Windows 10 and 11. It was made to record games, but it records most apps, like a browser or a spreadsheet. It’s free, it’s already on your PC, and for a quick clip of one app it’s often enough.

If it doesn’t open, turn it on in Settings > Gaming > Xbox Game Bar on Windows 11, or Settings > Gaming > Game Bar on Windows 10.

How to screen record with Game Bar, step by step

1. Open the app you want to record. Game Bar records the window that is active when you start, so click on it first.
2. Open Game Bar. Press WinG. The Capture widget appears at the top left. If it isn’t there, click the Capture icon in the bar at the top.
3. Turn on the microphone if you want your voice. Click the microphone button in the Capture widget. The app’s own sound is recorded either way.
4. Start recording. Click the record button, or close Game Bar and press WinAltR. A small bar with a timer shows that it is recording.
5. Stop. Press WinAltR again, or click the stop button on the small bar.
6. Find the video. It’s an MP4 in Videos > Captures. You can also open it from See my captures in the Capture widget.

To choose what audio is recorded, where videos are saved and how long a recording can run, open Settings > Gaming > Captures.

What Game Bar can’t do

Game Bar is fine for a short clip of one app. These limits show up as soon as you record a tutorial or a demo:

• It records one app window. It doesn’t record the desktop, the taskbar or File Explorer, and if you switch to another app, that app isn’t in the video. Microsoft says some apps aren’t compatible with it at all.
• It can’t record a whole screen or a chosen area. You can’t show two windows side by side, or one monitor of two.
• It can’t pause. If you stop to check something, you get two files. If you keep going, the wait stays in the video.
• It can’t zoom or point. Small text stays small, and on a phone viewers can’t tell where to look. There is no zoom, no spotlight and no note on screen.
• It has no markers for chapters. You find the timestamps yourself after recording.
• It has no editor. To trim the start or the end, you need another app.

The other recorder: the Snipping Tool in Windows 11

Windows 11 has a second recorder in the Snipping Tool. Press WinShiftR, drag over the area you want, then click Start. Click Stop when you are done, and the video is saved in Videos > Screen Recordings. It can record an area of the desktop and add your microphone. Like Game Bar, it can’t pause, zoom or mark chapters.

Game Bar, the Snipping Tool and Director side by side

When Director fits better

Use Game Bar when you need a quick clip of one app and nobody will watch it on a phone. Use Director when the video is a tutorial, a demo or a course lesson that people should follow step by step:

• Record a whole screen. Move between the browser, the desktop and File Explorer, and everything stays in the video.
• Zoom while you talk. Press CtrlAltZ and the view zooms in on your cursor and follows it. CtrlAltX zooms out, and CtrlAltS dims everything except the area around the cursor.
• Pause without a second file. CtrlAltJ pauses and resumes, and the video carries on with no gap.
• Mark chapters as you go. Press CtrlAltN when a new step starts. When you stop, Director lists the markers with their timestamps.
• Get a finished MP4. When you press CtrlAltP again, the MP4 is already in Videos > Director with every zoom in it. If a zoom landed late, fix it in the editor and re-export.

Director is in private testing on Windows 10 and 11, with a waitlist. To set up the sound, read how to do a screen recording on Windows with audio. For every shortcut in one table, see shortcut keys for screen recording in Windows 11.