How to Use Windows 10’s Game DVR to Record Gameplay Videos

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Within Windows 10 is the Xbox app that is designed to provide gamers with a variety of useful tools. One of the more notable is the Game DVR – that will essentially let users record gameplay videos conveniently without any additional software.

How to Start and Stop Recording Manually

To start and stop recording a gameplay video manually with the Game DVR is really easy, and all you need to do is:

  1. Start playing the game and open the Game Bar by pressing Win+G on the keyboard.
  2. Click on the ‘Record’ circle to start recording.
  3. Click on the ‘Microphone’ icon to enable or disable audio recording via the microphone.
  4. Click on the ‘Stop’ square to stop recording.
  5. Open the Xbox app and select ‘Captures’ to view the video that was recording or edit it.

As you can see it is simple, straightforward and doesn’t take much time to start and stop recording the gameplay video. However that is really just one of the ways that the Windows 10 Game DVR can capture videos.

How to Automatically Record in the Background

The other option at your disposal is to set the Game DVR to automatically record in the background. That way at any point you can save a video of the last few seconds that took place on your screen.

If you want to use this feature, you will first need to make sure it is enabled. That can be done in Windows Settings > Gaming > Capture or by opening the Game Bar (Win+G) and clicking on the ‘Settings’ cogwheel.

In either case make sure the ‘Record in the background while I’m playing a game’ checkbox or toggle is enabled. Additionally you can adjust the duration to record under the ‘Record the last’ list.

Once that is set up, all you need to do to convert the last several seconds of gameplay is open the Game Bar (Win+G) and click on the ‘Record that’ icon (second from the left) – or use the hotkey directly by pressing Win+Alt+G.

While recording in the background is a convenient to make sure that you can always save a game clip without having to prepare in advance – it does take up system resources. That is why if you notice your game performance starts to suffer, you may want to disable it.

Final Words

Technically the Game DVR can record apps as well, though it has numerous limitations and isn’t exactly a substitute for a more capable screen recorder.

That being said if you just want a quick and convenient way to record gameplay videos, it will definitely fit the bill. Seeing as it is already built into Windows 10, you should make it a point to try it out for yourself.