Today, we’re going to walk you through how to screen record on Windows 11. You can screen record for a variety of reasons, whether it’s for gaming videos or to create a tutorial where you record your screen to walk your viewers through each step of the process.
Whatever the reason you choose to screen record on Windows 11, we’re here to show you how to do that, so let’s get started!
How to Screen Record Using Xbox Game Bar
The Windows 11 PC comes with a built-in screen recorder application located in the Xbox Game Bar. You can open the Xbox Game Bar by searching for it on your computer or pressing the Windows button + G keyboard shortcut.
The Xbox Game Bar will pop up and have icons representing the four functions you can control using the application: a performance function, audio function, resources function, and capture function. You don’t have to have an Xbox to use this feature for screen capturing.
For screen recording, all you need is the capture feature of the Xbox Game Bar. It will look like this:
From here, you can take a screenshot image of your screen using the app, or you can begin recording. You have to have an application running on your screen to start recording. It can be any application, from a gaming application to a Microsoft Office application. The Xbox Game Bar doesn’t serve as a webcam; it will only record screen applications.
Once you have opened the application you want to record, hit the record button on the capture menu from the Xbox Game Bar application. A new menu will come up, showing you the capture status of the screen recording, as seen below.
You can turn the microphone on or off from this screen as well. Let’s say you want to record a voice-over at a later time. You can turn off the microphone while recording video so that the application doesn’t record any sounds occurring when recording the application. You can add sounds later using the video editor, which we will talk about in a few moments.
Once you have finished recording, press the stop button, and it will notify you that the clip was recorded, as you can see below.
If you want to see what you have just recorded, you will click the “Show All Captures” button on the capture menu.
When you click ‘Show All Captures,’ it will bring up a list of all of the screen recordings you have created.
From here, you can delete the recording, rename the recording, or save it in a different file location. You also get an entire list of all the screen recordings you have created, allowing you to make changes to all of the screen recordings, not just the one you have just created.
For any application that you want to record, the Xbox Game Bar will let you record it.
As you can see below, we are using it to record a tutorial using Microsoft Word, and it works the same way it did with the gaming example.
Important: You can turn the microphone on and off with the Xbox Game Bar. If you are creating a tutorial and want to do your voice recording or audio recording while you work in the application instead of adding a voice-over later, make sure the microphone is on while recording.
If you want to edit the clip you just recorded, you can open up the “Video Editor” application in Windows 11, as seen below.
This allows you to trim the clip, add music, or any other effects before you upload or share the clip.
Understanding the Settings in Xbox Game Bar
You can make the Xbox Game Bar on your Windows PC more useful by understanding and editing the settings to match your preferences. To get to the settings, click on the little cog button at the far right of the Xbox Game Bar.
When you go into settings, it will look like this:
Let’s say you want to change the shortcuts in the Xbox Game Bar. You can click the shortcuts tab, and it will bring up all of the different shortcuts found within the app.
You can change the shortcuts based on your personal preferences. You don’t have to use the shortcuts that come with the application.
Look through the settings to see if you should change anything to make your computer screen recording better for you.
Changing the Capture Settings in Windows 11
You can change the video recording capture settings in Windows 11. You can find the capture settings by searching for ‘capture settings’ in the Windows PC search bar. It should bring up a screen that looks like this:
From here, you can change the location where you save the screen recordings. Let’s say you want the clips saved in a specific file location. You can change where you save the file by clicking the “open folder” button.
You can change your recording preferences in this section, too. One of the things you might want to change is the recording length of the clips you’re recording. You can choose 30 minutes up to 4 hours for your max recording length.
You can also change the video frame rate. Thirty frames per second are recommended, but if you create a video that works best with 60 fps, you can change that setting here.
The recorded video quality can also be changed from standard to high in these preferences, and you can turn the recording of the mouse cursor on or off as well in this section.
Conclusion
We hope this tutorial has helped you understand how to screen record on Windows 11 using the built-in Xbox app. It’s an easy way to screen record applications like games or tutorials on your computer. Just remember that you must have an application open for the Xbox Game Bar to screen record.
