How to screen record in Windows 11

With Windows 10, Mi­crosoft­'s operating system received a native screen recording feature update in the form of Xbox Game Bar. With the help of this handy tool, user can create video record­ings of programs like Word and Excel or capture clips of games. However, recording from the Windows 11 desktop or the File Explorer is not possible. We will show you exactly how to do a screen recording in Windows 11.

Xbox Game Bar is primarily designed for recording games. However, you can also use the tool to record a wide variety of other programs, such as Office ap­pli­ca­tions to create screen­casts, for example. The following in­struc­tions summarize the steps in brief:

1. Launch the program or game you wish to record.
2. Use the key com­bi­na­tion [Windows] key + [G] to launch Xbox Game Bar.
3. Press the record button (“Start recording”) or use the key com­bi­na­tion [Windows] key + [Alt] + [R] to begin recording.
4. Press the Stop button (“Stop recording”) or use the key com­bi­na­tion [Windows] key + [Alt] + [R] again to finish recording.
5. You can find the recorded screen captures in your Windows 11 user directory “C:\Users\USERNAME\Videos\Captures”.

Contrary to what the name suggests, the Xbox Game Bar is not an exclusive feature of the popular Microsoft game console. The tool is rather a link between Xbox and PC gamers, because it allows users of Xbox, PC, and mobile devices to com­mu­ni­cate, among other things. However, the most in­ter­est­ing feature for PC users is the option to take screen record­ings.

The Xbox Game Bar was already able to do screen record­ings in Windows 10. It enables users to make image, video, and audio record­ings of almost all programs and games without having to install ad­di­tion­al software. In the following sections we have sum­ma­rized the most important steps for you.

You can now define the storage location of the video clips and adjust the following recording settings:

• Record what happened: If you activate this function, the recording function of the Xbox Game Bar runs in the back­ground without creating a clip. A recording of the last 30 seconds (op­tion­al­ly also up to 10 minutes) is only saved in the recording folder via a key com­bi­na­tion.
• Max. recording length: Choose between 30 minutes and 4 hours for the maximum length of a screen recording in Windows 11.
• Capture audio when recording a game: If you want the sound of the game or program you are recording to be captured as well, you must enable this option. You can adjust the sound quality (96-192 KBit/s) and regulate the recording volume of the mi­cro­phone and system sound.
• Video frame rate: Specify whether you want to record at up to 30 or up to 60 FPS (frames per second).
• Video quality: With the “Standard” video quality of the Game Bar enabled, the tool adapts to the quality you have set in the game or program – up to 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels). For higher res­o­lu­tions, select the “High” option at this point.
• Capture the mouse pointer when recording a game: If this option is enabled, the mouse pointer is also recorded during screen capture in Windows 11.

Launch the program or game you wish to record. Then open the Xbox Game Bar with the key com­bi­na­tion [Windows] key + [G].

In case of the Xbox Game Bar, the various functions and features are called widgets. By default, the tool shows the widgets “Per­for­mance”, “Audio”, “Looking for Group”, “Xbox Social”, and “Capture”. The latter is the crucial tool for a screen capture in Windows 11.

Before you get started recording video with the Game Bar, you should check whether you want to record the sound of your mi­cro­phone. By default, the mi­cro­phone is disabled during recording, so you must turn it on to record sound.

Turn mi­cro­phone recording on or off in the Xbox Game Bar at any time using the afore­men­tioned mi­cro­phone icon or the key com­bi­na­tion [Windows] key + [Alt] + [M].

In the gallery, you can playback recorded Windows 11 screen record­ings just like you would with an ordinary video player. Moreover, you can rename or delete your record­ings and open the location of the file(s).