Screen Recording with the Inbuilt Windows Gamebar

Windows 10 has the inbuilt ability for screen recording using "The Windows Gamebar". The screen recording capabilities however are quite limited as it is focused on Gaming as the name suggests. Essentially the main limitation is you can only record within one App at a time and as soon as you close or minimise that App, your recording ends. As mentioned this is designed for Games which essentially operate that way.

It is possible with some tweaks that Microsoft make it more useful in the future allowing recording while switching Apps, in addition to recording the Taskbar, Start Menu, On Screen Keyboard etc etc. This would of course allow people like myself to make tutorials and guides using inbuilt Windows 10 Features opposed to third party software. I use Debut Video Capture for my guides.

Tutorial Video

Written Guide

To launch the Gamebar, open your App or Game and press [Windows] and [ g ]

Game Capturing will display:

You can click the Start Recording Button:

You will get a dialogue box saying Gaming Features Not Available with a checkbox to Enable Gaming Features for this App.

Once you Enable them, you can Record:

You will see to the top right the recorder where you can stop the recording.

Clicking into the Excel App after 5 seconds hides the GameBar menu but the Recorder still shows:

Modifying an Excel spreadsheet:

Then the main limitation, if I minimise Excel, the Screen Recording instantly ends without me pressing the stop button:

My recording is saved in the Captures subfolder under Videos:

I can now play it:

The Gamebar or Recorder does not show in my Recording, which is expected. For the first 5 seconds I had however the onscreen keyboard displaying but it also does not show in my Recording. The Windows Gamebar only records the single App or Game of interest. This limitation of course is useful for some applications for instance Gaming which it is designed for but limits it from being an all purpose Windows 10 inbuilt screen recorder.

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