How To Use Windows 10 Game Bar To Screenshot, record and do much more

Windows 10 as an upgrade came with so much new features and "Game Bar" is one of the best features of Windows 10 it is specially for gamers. This built-in tool is a part of Windows 10's Game DVR feature which allows you to take screenshots and record videos while playing PC games.

To launch Game Bar, you just need to press WIN+G keys together and the Game Bar appears on screen. If you are using an Xbox controller, you can simply press Xbox button to show Game Bar.

If you launch the Game Bar first time for a specific game, it asks "Do you want to open Game bar?", click on "Yes, this is a game" option and the Game Bar will launch for the game.

Game bar contains the following buttons:

• Xbox
• Take Screenshot
• Record That
• Start/Stop Recording
• Broadcast (in newer Windows 10 versions only)
• Settings

First "Xbox" button can be used to launch Xbox app directly. Second "Screenshot" button can be used to take a screenshot of the game. The third "Record That" button can be used to record last 30 seconds of the gameplay. Fourth "Start/Stop Recording" button can be used to create a video of your gameplay. And the last "Settings" button can be used to change Game DVR and Game Bar settings.

The Game Bar also contains a small vertical panel at the right-side to drag and move the Game Bar anywhere on the screen.

Hotkeys (keyboard shortcuts) for buttons present on the Game Bar:

• Screenshot - WIN+ALT+PrtScn
• Record- WIN+ALT+G
• Start/Stop Recording - WIN+ALT+R
• Show/Hide Recording Timer - WIN+ALT+T
• Microphone Recording On/Off - WIN+ALT+M
• Broadcast - WIN+ALT+B

So you can directly press above mentioned keyboard shortcuts to take screenshots, videos, etc without any need of clicking on Game Bar buttons.

Were to find your screenshots captured by game bar:

C:\Users\User_name\Videos\Captures

You can directly open this folder using %userprofile%\Videos\Captures command in RUN dialog box or Windows Explorer address bar. The screenshots are saved in PNG format and the videos are saved in MP4 format. Both screenshots and videos are saved with the name of the game and date/time.

All screenshots and videos are also shown in Game DVR section of Xbox app.

Using Game Bar settings, you can change above mentioned keyboard shortcuts according to your requirements, enable/disable background recording, change "record last seconds" amount, show/hide timer while recording, enable/disable audio in recordings, etc.

Other Tips:

Game Bar is not limited to PC games only. You can use Game Bar with PC programs as well. Open any software program and press WIN+G keys together and the Game Bar will appear on screen. Now you can take screenshot or record video of the program. But there are some limitations! You can't use Game Bar on Desktop and in Windows Explorer. But it works fine with normal programs. Try it!