Whether it’s to illustrate a problem encountered, to show a loved one how to perform an operation, or to show off your performance in a game, use the Xbox game bar integrated into the Microsoft operating system to capture a video screen from your PC without installing third-party software.
Taking a video screenshot of your Windows 11 PC is probably a lot easier than you might imagine. Contrary to what you may think, you don’t necessarily need to download and install third-party software to record a video of what’s on your computer screen.
You may not know it, but Windows natively includes a tool capable of performing this operation: it is the Xbox Game Bar. This Xbox game bar is in principle intended for gamers to allow them to make a video screencast of their video game games.
Nevertheless, the Xbox Game Bar is not limited only to gaming. It is indeed quite possible to use it with other programs than games. The utility, which can be run outside of a game, can then be used to record a video screenshot for other applications.
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1. Set up Xbox Game Bar
Open Windows Settings using the keyboard shortcut Windows+i then click on the Games section in the left column.
Then enter the Xbox Game Bar menu and make sure the option is enabled on your machine.
Then go back to the root of the settings in the Games section of Settings and enter the Captures menu to customize your settings.
Depending on your needs, you can modify the Location of the captures, but also customize the Recording preferences by modifying, for example, the Video quality or the Video frame rate.
You can then close the Windows settings window. By default, the save location for video screenshots you take with Xbox Game Bar are automatically saved to the directory C:UsersYourUserNameVideosCaptures from your PC.
2. Enable Game Bar
To activate the Xbox Game Bar, use the keyboard shortcut Windows + G. You should then see the different Xbox Game Bar windows appear on your screen: Capture, Audio, Performance, Xbox Social, etc.
3. Record your screen on video
To start recording screen video, click the white dot Record button displayed in the Capture window or use the keyboard shortcut Windows+Alt+R.
The video capture of your screen is now started. A new Capture Status window, where the recording duration is displayed, should be opened.
It is from this same window that you can click on the Stop button to stop the video capture of your PC screen.
4. Access your captures
To access your video screenshots, open Windows File Explorer, select the Videos folder in the sidebar and enter the Captures directory.
You can also re-enable Game Bar using the keyboard shortcut Windows+G, then click View My Captures in the Capture window to access the gallery to view your video captures.
Clicking on the button appearing on a grafted folder at the top of the window will allow you to directly access the backup directory.
All your video screenshots are saved there in MP4 format.