How to Screen Record on Windows 11
Short answer: Press Win+Alt+R — recording starts immediately with just a small timer in the corner, and the same shortcut stops it. The file saves to Videos\Captures. That is the built-in Xbox Game Bar recorder, fastest for a quick grab. For full-desktop capture across multiple monitors or a specific window with system audio, use OBS Studio instead.
Win+Alt+R. That starts recording immediately, no UI pops up, nothing. Small timer appears in the corner. Same shortcut stops it. File goes to Videos\Captures. This is the Xbox Game Bar recorder and it’s the fastest option when you just need to grab something quick.
Catch: Game Bar only records the active window. Not the desktop, not File Explorer, not the taskbar, not multiple windows side by side. You switch to another window during recording and it keeps filming the original one. Microsoft built this for game clips and never really expanded it past that. For a full-desktop recording showing you switching between apps and using the Start menu, Game Bar won’t work.
Snipping Tool Does Full Desktop Now
Snipping Tool picked up screen recording in the 22H2 update. Open Snipping Tool, click the camera icon to switch to video mode, hit New, drag a rectangle over whatever area you want. Click Start. It captures that exact region regardless of what app is in it, and if a window moves across your selection area it records the movement. Way more flexible than Game Bar.
Used to have one big limitation — no audio at all, not even system sounds. Microsoft fixed that in 24H2. There’s a microphone toggle and a system audio toggle now in the toolbar while you’re recording. Before 24H2 you’re stuck with silent video only, which is fine for filing bug reports but useless for tutorials. If Snipping Tool won’t even launch or the video mode button is grayed out, the app’s UWP package is probably corrupted — Snipping Tool broken covers the fix.
OBS for Anything Serious
OBS Studio — free, open source, records everything. Desktop, individual windows, webcam overlay, mic, system audio, all simultaneously. The learning curve is steeper but once you set it up you never have to think about it again.
On first launch the auto-config wizard picks encoding settings based on your GPU. Set output format to MKV, not MP4. Reason: if OBS crashes or your machine blue screens mid-recording, MKV files stay intact. MP4 files are gone — corrupted, unrecoverable, recording lost. You can always convert MKV to MP4 afterwards from the File menu, Remux Recordings. Takes a few seconds.
Add a Display Capture source for the whole screen. Audio Output Capture for desktop audio (games, music, whatever is playing), Audio Input Capture for your mic. Both record at the same time.
OBS uses your GPU’s hardware encoder when it can — NVENC on Nvidia cards, AMF on AMD, QuickSync on Intel integrated. Recording uses maybe 2-3% GPU overhead with hardware encoding. If you notice your game stuttering while recording, open Settings, Output, and make sure you’re on NVENC or AMF instead of x264. x264 uses CPU instead and absolutely murders performance on anything below an 8-core chip. If your microphone isn’t working in OBS, check Windows Privacy settings first.
The Black Screen Thing
You’re recording with OBS Display Capture and the preview just shows a black rectangle. The recording is also black. This happens on laptops with two GPUs — Intel integrated plus a dedicated Nvidia card. OBS is running on the Intel GPU but the thing you’re trying to record is rendering on the Nvidia GPU. They can’t see each other.
Fix it: Windows Settings, System, Display, Graphics, find OBS in the list, set it to High Performance (the Nvidia GPU). Or skip Display Capture entirely and add a Game Capture source instead — Game Capture hooks directly into the application’s render pipeline and doesn’t care which GPU is doing what. I always use Game Capture on dual-GPU laptops now because Display Capture just isn’t reliable on those machines.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the fastest way to record my screen on Windows 11?
Win+Alt+R starts recording immediately without opening any menus. It uses Xbox Game Bar which is built into Windows. Same shortcut stops the recording. Files save to Videos\Captures. Game Bar records the active window only — not the full desktop or multiple windows.
How do I record my screen with audio on Windows 11?
Xbox Game Bar records system audio by default but not microphone. For both, use OBS Studio (free, obsproject.com). Add a Display Capture source for video, Audio Output Capture for system sounds, and Audio Input Capture for your microphone. OBS records all of them simultaneously.
Why is my Game Bar screen recording a black screen?
Game Bar can't record File Explorer, the desktop itself, or some fullscreen exclusive games. If you're recording a game and getting black, the game may be using a different GPU than Game Bar. In Windows Display settings, Graphics settings, set the game and Game Bar to use the same GPU. Or use OBS with Game Capture instead of Display Capture.
Can Snipping Tool record video?
Yes, since Windows 11 22H2. Open Snipping Tool, click the video icon at the top, select a screen region, and click Start. It records the selected area but captures no audio — no microphone and no system sounds. Good for silent tutorials and bug demonstrations.