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How to Record Your Computer Screen Activity in Windows 10 OS

Recording your computer screen activity can be extremely useful for creating tutorials, software demonstrations, gaming videos, and more. Windows 10 comes with a built-in tool called the Xbox Game Bar that allows you to easily record videos of your screen.

In this comprehensive guide, I will walk you through the entire process of recording your screen on Windows 10, from setup to editing and exporting your videos. As an experienced tech writer and Windows power user, I will provide detailed, step-by-step instructions that are easy to follow even for beginners.

Enabling the Xbox Game Bar

The first step is to enable the Xbox Game Bar if you haven’t already. Here’s how:

  1. Open the Start menu and click on the Settings gear icon to open Windows Settings
  2. Click on “Gaming”
  3. On the Gaming page, scroll down and turn on the “Record game clips, screenshots, and broadcast using Game Bar” toggle switch under Xbox Game Bar

Once you have enabled Game Bar, you can start using it to record your screen.

Starting a Screen Recording

To start recording your screen, follow these steps:

  1. Open the app window you want to record. The Game Bar can record most desktop programs and apps, but not File Explorer or desktop.
  2. Hit the Windows key + G to open the Game Bar widget. A widget will appear with options to record, take screenshots, toggle audio, etc.
  3. Click on the round Record button. Your recording will begin instantly.

A small widget showing recording controls will appear. You can hit the microphone icon to toggle audio recording on or off.

Stopping and Accessing Your Screen Recordings

Once you are done recording, here is how to stop and access your videos:

  1. Hit the Windows key + Alt + R or click on the square Stop button on the widget to stop recording.
  2. Hit the Windows key + G again to bring the Game Bar back up if you closed it.
  3. On the Game Bar, click on the “Captures” icon on the left sidebar to open your recordings library.
  4. Click on a screen recording to play it back or open its file location. Your videos are saved as MP4 files in Videos > Captures folder.

Customizing Recording Options

You can customize the Xbox Game Bar’s recording options to control video quality, length, and output settings. Here’s how:

  1. Open Game Bar settings. Hit Windows key + G then click on the Settings cog icon at the top.
  2. Go to the Captures tab. This is where you can configure recording options.
  3. Set maximum clip length. Choose a duration between 30 seconds to 1 hour.
  4. Change video and audio quality. Higher quality means bigger file sizes.
  5. Pick output folder location to save your recordings. Default location is Videos > Captures.

Play around with these settings to optimize performance and video quality as per your specific needs.

Recording Screen Regions and Audio

The Game Bar recorder lets you choose exactly what part of the screen to record. You can record the entire display or a specific app window. Here’s how:

Recording a Portion of The Screen

  1. Start a new recording (Windows key + Alt + R)
  2. Click on the dropdown menu at the top of the widget and select “Record selected portion of screen”
  3. Drag your mouse to draw a rectangle around the area you want to record. Your video will be cropped to that portion.

Recording Computer Audio

  1. Start a new recording
  2. Click on the mic icon to enable or disable system audio recording. Game Bar records audio from your speakers and headphones by default.

Recording Webcam Along With Screen

To record your webcam feed picture-in-picture alongside your screen activity, do this:

  1. Open Game Bar settings > Captures tab
  2. Turn on the “Record webcam” toggle switch
  3. Start a new screen recording
  4. Your webcam video will be shown in a small overlay window which you can resize and move around

Editing Your Screen Recordings

Once your video is recorded, you can easily trim, crop, and make other edits right within Windows 10’s Photos app:

  1. Open the Photos app and click on “Edit & Create” in the top right
  2. Go to “Video projects” and pick your screen recording to open the video editor
  3. Use the trim tool to cut unwanted sections. Click and drag the handles on the timeline.
  4. Add background music or record voiceover audio with the built-in mic
  5. Apply filters, text, animations, emojis and more using the toolbar at the top

When you are done editing, click on “Export” to save a copy of the final edited video in MP4 format.

Alternative Recording Software

While Game Bar works great, it lacks some advanced recording features. For more control and customization options, dedicated third party software like OBS Studio, Bandicam and Icecream Screen Recorder are excellent alternatives.

These tools allow you to record high quality, lag-free videos, edit them, live stream your screen, schedule recordings in advance and much more. They are free to try out and available for Windows and Mac.

Conclusion

And that wraps up this comprehensive guide on how to record your computer screen activity on Windows 10. As you can see, it is quick and easy to capture on-screen videos using the built-in Xbox Game Bar.

Within minutes, you can get started recording smooth, high-quality screen recordings without any expert skills. Game Bar provides all the basic recording and editing features you need for tutorials, gameplay videos and more.

For advanced users, third party software like OBS Studio offers more customization and control over your recordings.

I hope you found this article helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions!

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