How To Record Screen In Windows 10 in 2021 (Without Any Software)

You might be using Windows 10 for a while, but that doesn’t mean that you have discovered everything it has to offer. Actually, Windows 10 offers users lots of features, but most remain undiscovered. In this article, we will talk about a hidden feature of Windows 10 that would allow you to record your screen.

To record the screen on Windows 10, users generally need to install third-party software. However, what if I tell you that you can record the Windows 10 screen without installing any additional software? Windows 10 has a hidden screen recording tool built into the Game Bar.

The screen recording tool is specially designed for gamers who want to record their gameplay videos. In this article, we will share a working method that would help you record Windows 10 screens easily. So, let’s check out how to Record a screen in Windows 10 without using any software.

Steps To Record Screen In Windows 10 in 2021

The method is straightforward, and you need to use some shortcut keys on your keyboard. Windows 10 will display the game bar you will use to record the screen. So follow the complete steps below.

Step 1. First of all, in your Windows 10, click on start and then type “Xbox app” and then open the Xbox app.

Step 2. Now in the Xbox app, you have to press a keyboard that is “win+G” this can be done on the screen you want to record. Now, as soon as you press this combination, the popup will appear, asking you that it is a game? Simple click on Yes, it is a game.

Step 3. Now you will see few options that are “Screenshot,” “Start Recording,” and “Settings.”

Step 4. Now select the Start recording button, and the recording will get started, and you can stop recording when you are done.

By default, all your recordings get saved to the folder
“C/Users/Videos/Captures“.

That’s it! You are done; now, you can easily record the screen with this cool trick that will not need any third-party tool. You can also choose out the screenshot feature in this game bar tool.

Using VLC Media Player

Well, VLC Media Player is software, and the reason I had mentioned VLC Media player is that almost everyone uses it. With the VLC Media player’s help, you can record the screen without any external third-party recording software. You can use this method in Windows 7,8, and 10. Let’s know how to record the screen using the VLC media player.

Step 1. First of all, download and install VLC Media Player on your Windows computer if you don’t have one.

Step 2. Now launch the VLC media player, click on “Media,” and then select “Open Capture Device.”

Step 3. Under Capture mode, you need to click on the drop-down and then select desktop.

Step 4. Set all other options according to your wish, and then click on the “Play” button.

Step 5. Now you need to click on the “Stop” button.

Step 6. Now you will see the screen like below. Here you need to right-click on your recording and select the option “Save,” and save it to your desired location.

That’s it! You are done. This VLC media player method works with every Windows version. You don’t need any additional software to record your desktop screen.

So, this is all about Windows 10 screen recording. We have shared the two best methods to record Windows 10 screen. If you don’t want to go through all hassle and want a straightforward way to record Windows 10 screen, you need to visit our article Best Screen Recording Software For Windows. I hope this article helped you! Please share it with others also.

How to Capture Video Clips in Windows 10

Windows 10 has a built-in tool called Game Bar to help you record your screen during PC and Xbox gaming sessions. But this tool can also be used to record non-gaming apps.

Taking a screenshot in Windows 10 is fairly quick and simple. You can easily snap your screen using the handy Print Screen button on your keyboard and fine-tune it via the Snip & Sketch tool. Capturing video of your screen activity is more challenging, but Microsoft makes it possible through the use of a built-in video capture tool called Game Bar.

Game Bar was designed to record games you play directly on your PC, or those you stream from an Xbox One, but it can just as easily capture video of screen activity from your web browser, Windows applications, and many other programs. Any screen activity you record is automatically saved as an MP4 video file.

Game Bar does impose certain system requirements, including the right type of graphics card. If you try to use Game Bar and your PC isn’t up to snuff, you may receive an error telling you that your PC doesn’t meet the hardware requirement for recording clips. But fear not, as there is a way around this limitation.

Enable Screen Recording

First, make sure that Game Bar is enabled. Open Settings > Gaming > Game bar and turn on the switch to Record game clips, screenshots, and broadcast using Game Bar, if it’s not already on. If you have an Xbox One controller, or Xbox 360 controller with the right driver, you can even trigger Game Bar through the Xbox button on the gamepad. From this screen, you can also change any of the keyboard shortcuts associated with opening the Game Bar, taking a screenshot, and recording video.

Open what you wish to record. You can start a recording from most applications and windows, but there are exceptions. You can’t kick off a capture from the Windows desktop, File Explorer, or certain Windows apps such as Weather. Otherwise, the field is pretty wide open.

Record Your Screen

Press Win+G to open the Game Bar. Several Game Bar widgets pop up with options for capturing screenshots, controlling your video and audio, and viewing your Xbox social account. The pane also displays the name of your current app, file, or window as the source for the video capture.

Click the camera icon to take a simple screenshot or hit the Start Recording button to capture your screen activity. Instead of going through the Game Bar pane, you can also just press Win+Alt+R to start your recording.

The first time you choose to record screen activity from a specific application or window, Game Bar needs your permission. Click the checkbox to «Enable gaming features for this app to record gameplay.» Click the Start Recording button again, and the video capture starts.

You can now perform whatever screen actions you want to capture. The Game Bar widgets vanish, replaced by a small floating bar in the upper-right corner of the screen through which you can control the recording.

To stop the recording, click the Recording button on the floating bar. A notification appears telling you that the game clip was recorded. Click the notification, and File Explorer opens to the specified location. Just double-click the video file to play it in its associated application.

If you don’t like where video captures are being saved by default, you can always change the location. Go to Settings > Gaming > Captures. Click the Open folder button and choose a different folder.

Recording in the Background

Have you ever done something on your computer and then suddenly wished you’d captured the moment? With the Windows 10 Game Bar, you can record the last several seconds or minutes of screen activity after you’ve already performed it.

To do this, you first need to grant permission for the computer to record your activities in the background. Open the Game Bar and click the Settings icon. Scroll down the Settings screen and check the box to Record in the background while I’m playing a game. While here, you can click the drop-down menu for Record the last and change the interval to anywhere from 15 seconds to 10 minutes.

Now you need never miss a moment again. Just click the Record last 30 sec button, and a video is generated based on the number of seconds or minutes you set.

Customize Game Bar

You can view your video captures, control which widgets appear, and customize an array of settings directly through Game Bar. Press Win+G to open the Game Bar. In the Capture widget, click the Show All Captures link to see a list of all your captured videos. Click the video you want to play.

Windows allows you to set which widgets pop up when Game Bar is activated. From the Game Bar display, close the window for any widget that you don’t want to see. In the top widget toolbar, click the Widget menu icon to the right of the time, then select the widgets you want to use. You can also turn certain widgets on or off by clicking the appropriate icon on the top widget toolbar.

Click the Settings icon at the right end of the top widget. Here, you can view and change the accounts, shortcuts, theme, recording options, notifications, and other controls for Game Bar.

If you bump into problems with Game Bar, or the tool won’t let you capture your screen activity, your best bet is to check Microsoft’s web page on “Troubleshoot Xbox Game Bar on Windows 10.”

Game Bar Workaround

But what if you receive an error that your device doesn’t meet the hardware requirement for recording clips? Assuming you can’t change your PC hardware or video card, there is one trick you can try courtesy of a third-party utility called Game DVR Config.

How to use Windows 10’s Game bar to record a game or even your screen

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Gaming is one of Microsoft’s areas of focus in Windows 10, with features like a preinstalled Xbox app for connecting with Xbox One and Xbox 360 users, Game DVR for taking screenshots and recording gameplay clips, and support for streaming Xbox One games to a Windows 10 computer or tablet.

Windows 10 includes a «Game bar» that users can bring up with a simple shortcut, Windows key + G, for quick access to gaming features. The bar features five buttons (the small panel to the right of the bar can be used to drag it around the screen):

1. Xbox app shortcut
2. generate recording of the previous 30 seconds, à la Xbox One’s «Xbox, record that» — but only if background recording is enabled (hotkey: Win + Alt + G)
3. take a screenshot (hotkey: Win + Alt + PrtScn)
4. start/stop recording (hotkey: Win + Alt + R)
5. Game DVR settings

Windows 10 lets you use the Game bar to record gameplay footage and take screenshots of Windows PC games. You can also use it as a screen recorder, although that functionality is somewhat limited. The Game bar generates screenshots in PNG format and videos in MP4 format, and drops them in the following folder: C:\Users\[your username]\Videos\Captures. From there, you can do whatever you want with the files — upload them to YouTube, share them on Facebook and so on.

Before you start using the Game bar, it’s a good idea to hop into the Xbox app and configure settings for the Game DVR feature. You can enable or disable it entirely, and replace the default keyboard shortcuts with hotkeys of your choosing. Oddly, the app doesn’t let you change the output folder for videos and screenshots. For video quality and resolution, you can select «standard» or «high» — there’s nothing more specific than those terms, unfortunately.

Windows 10’s Game DVR will record audio by default; you can set the bitrate to 96, 128, 160 or 192 kbps, or turn off audio capture. And if you enable background recording — which uses more system resources — you can set the maximum clip length to 30 minutes, one hour or two hours.

Using the Game bar to capture a game

Recording gameplay footage is the primary use case for the Game bar, and it works as advertised: Press Win + G to bring up the bar, then Win + Alt + R to start recording and the same command to stop. If background recording is enabled, you can use the Win + Alt + G command to spit out a clip of the last 30 seconds of gameplay.

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However, in tests with three different games, we were unable to get the Game bar to show up if we were playing the game in fullscreen mode. Microsoft says that you can «usually still record» footage even if the Game bar doesn’t appear, but that didn’t work for us. We were only able to use the Game bar if we could see it, and the Game bar only popped up when we were playing in windowed mode.

At that point, we had no problems. When you start a recording, a small red box appears in the top right corner of the screen to indicate that you’re recording and display elapsed time. (You can hide or show the timer with Win + Alt + T.) Windows spits out an MP4 file within a second or two of ending the recording.

You can also take a screenshot with the command Win + Alt + Print Screen. Both videos and screenshots are saved to your computer with the name of the game and a timestamp in the filename. They also show up in the Game DVR section of the Xbox app, from where you can share them with your Xbox Live friends.

Using the Game bar to capture your screen

Windows 10’s Game bar can be used as a screen capture tool, a function that has required third-party software until now. But it only works within an app: Pressing Win + G on your desktop or in a file folder won’t do anything. Either way, when you attempt to bring up the Game bar for the first time in a particular app, a pop-up asks you to confirm that that’s what you want to do and click a check box saying, «Yes, this is a game.» (Don’t feel bad about telling Windows this white lie.)

The Game bar doesn’t work properly with all apps, and it’s unclear why. We were able to record a clip or two inside Adobe Photoshop CC 2015, but when we tried to reproduce that, an error message came up saying, «Something went wrong and we couldn’t change your settings. Try again later.» In our testing, Game DVR worked reliably in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Slack’s desktop app, Notepad and Spotify.

When used in an app, the Game bar generates a clip at the resolution of the size of the app’s window; the mouse cursor doesn’t show up. If you resize the window or switch to a different window, Game DVR immediately stops recording. So while the feature isn’t as helpful as Windows users might have hoped — it won’t completely replace third-party screen capture software — it’ll do in a pinch.

For more on Windows 10, check out our guide on how to customize the operating system’s privacy settings to your liking.

Update: It turns out that it is possible to choose the directory where Game DVR clips are saved, but it’s a system-level change, according to this tutorial from WDA_Punisher on YouTube. You have to change your computer’s default «Videos» directory in the system settings.