Windows 10 can take a screenshot and record a video of your screen without any third-party software. This Windows 10’s easy-to-use Capture utility is called “Game Bar“.
This game bar comes with Windows 10 pre-installed, and the “Xbox Game Bar” software works perfectly for gamers.
Aside from gaming, it can also act as a screen capture tool that records your screen in H.264 MP4 format.
The Capture widget can be found in the Game Bar’s “Widget Menu” feature. You’ll also need to run on Windows 10 May update or later.
How to Initiate Screen Capture on Windows 10
- First, check if the Game Bar is already activated (it should be activated automatically, tho). Then navigate to Settings > Gaming > Toggle the Game Bar Icon ON.
- Now, Press Windows + G to launch Game Bar. Alternatively, you can navigate to Search > Game Bar and click on it.
- Search for “Capture” in the Game Bar Overlay, or locate it using the camera icon beside the volume option.
- If it ain’t amongst the overlays, click the Bullet-like widget icon and select Capture from the drop-down list to enable it to appear in the overlay options.
Taking Screenshots on Windows 10 with Screen Capture Tool
There are four buttons on the Capture widget (from left to right) with features such as:
- Screenshot: Takes a screenshot of the active window.
- Record last 30 seconds: Creates a recording of the previous 30 seconds.
- Start recording: Start recording your active window.
- Turn on the mic while recording: If this option is enabled, Windows 10 captures audio from your computer’s microphone and includes it in the recording.
The Screen Record feature might be available for some PC’s depending on your hardware configuration but you’ll be able to make use of the screenshot feature.
Before you start recording, you can turn off the mic if you want a voiceless video. Then click the Start Recording button.
Meanwhile, to take screenshots, click the capture tool or press WIN + ALT + PrntScrn to capture the whole screen.
You can view your screenshots and records by clicking on “Show All Captures” below the widget. Alternatively, you can go to C:UsersNAMEVideosCaptures.
Lastly, you can change your keypad settings by going to Settings > Game Bar Controller Settings, then customise the default keyboard shortcut from here.
BONUS
If you don’t want to pass through the following steps while making a screenshot, simply:
- Use the Shift + Windows Key + S to access the Snip & Sketch tool.
- Crop the portion you’d like to screenshot,
- You’ll see a pop-up with the screenshot,
- Click on it to crop, save, and share if you want to.
That’s all! Have you ever imagined that Windows has such a simple screen capture tool? Well, now you do.
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