How to Use Windows 10 Secret Screen Recorder: Quick and Easy Methods

Most people don’t know that Windows 10 comes with a built-in screen recorder. It’s not hidden behind any mysterious software or complex setup either—it’s actually part of the Xbox Game Bar. Even though it was designed for gamers, you don’t need to be into games to use it. If you want to record your screen for tutorials, online classes, troubleshooting steps, or anything else, this tool can be surprisingly helpful. The best part? You don’t need to download anything extra.

How to Use Windows 10 Secret Screen Recorder

Using Xbox Game Bar to Record Your Screen

If you’ve never launched the Xbox Game Bar before, all it takes is a quick shortcut: press Windows + G. This opens up a panel right on top of whatever you’re doing. It has widgets for audio, performance, and, yes, screen capture.

To start recording, find the Capture widget. If it’s not visible, click on the camera icon or tap Windows + Alt + R directly to begin recording without even opening the full Game Bar interface. A small control bar appears on the edge of your screen, letting you stop the recording when you’re done.

By default, it saves your recordings to the Videos > Captures folder. You don’t need to adjust much unless you want to. But if you do, there’s a Settings option in the Game Bar that lets you tweak video quality, frame rate, and audio settings.

Recording with the Built-in Steps Recorder

If you’re not looking for video but still want to document your screen activity, Windows 10 includes another lesser-known tool called Steps Recorder. This one doesn’t create videos—it takes screenshots as you perform actions and logs them with notes.

Open the Start Menu and type Steps Recorder to launch it. Once open, click on Start Record, then begin doing whatever you want to capture. Every click or keystroke is logged, and the screen gets snapped automatically. When you’re done, hit Stop Record, and the app generates a ZIP file with an MHT document inside. That file contains a scrollable view of all the steps, complete with screenshots and brief descriptions.

Using PowerPoint’s Screen Recording Tool

Here’s one that’s surprisingly useful: PowerPoint. If you have Microsoft Office installed, PowerPoint has its screen recording feature. You don’t even need to be building a presentation.

Open PowerPoint and go to Insert > Screen Recording. A small toolbar pops up, letting you select the part of your screen you want to capture. You can choose to include audio and even mouse pointer movements.

Click Record, and it starts capturing whatever is in that selected area. When you’re done, click the stop button. The video gets dropped into the PowerPoint slide. From there, right-click the video and select Save Media As to save it as a separate MP4 file.

This method is good for quick recordings where you don’t need to open another program or adjust a lot of settings.

Using Windows 10 Game DVR Settings for Background Recording

If you’re someone who wants to capture something after it happens, the Game DVR feature can help. This part of the Game Bar allows you to record in the background so that you can hit save only when something worth keeping just happened.

To activate this, go to Settings, select Gaming > Captures and turn on Record in the background while I’m playing a game. You can set how long you want it to record in the background, up to 10 minutes.

Once that’s set, pressing Windows + Alt + G will grab the last few minutes of whatever you were doing. It’s not just limited to games—it works for any app that supports screen recording through the Game Bar. This is handy when you didn’t plan on recording but want to keep something you just saw or did.

Recording with Microsoft Clipchamp

Microsoft started rolling out Clipchamp with newer updates to Windows 10. If your version has it, it’s worth checking out. It’s more of a video editor than a straight screen recorder, but it has screen capture built in.

Open Clipchamp and start a new project. When you click Record & Create, you’ll get a few options—choose Screen Recording. It launches a permission dialog where you can pick between recording your entire screen, a specific window, or a browser tab.

Once the recording finishes, the video lands in your Clipchamp timeline. You can trim or edit it before exporting. This works well for people who want simple edits built right into the process.

Using Command Prompt or PowerShell? Not Exactly.

There’s a bit of confusion around whether Command Prompt or PowerShell has hidden screen recording features. They don’t—not directly. But some people use task automation scripts to trigger Game Bar recording, or they run third-party tools via the command line. That said, these methods don’t offer anything new unless you’re setting up automated workflows, and they usually require extra software.

Using ShareX

If you’re comfortable using portable apps, there are free recorders like ShareX that don’t require full installation and can run as executables. However, those go beyond the built-in tools and fall outside the scope of what’s already sitting quietly inside Windows 10.

Conclusion

You don’t need anything fancy to record your screen in Windows 10. Between Xbox Game Bar, PowerPoint, and Steps Recorder, there are more built-in tools than most people realize. Each one has a slightly different strength—whether it’s video, screenshots, background saving, or simple editing. And all of them work without any added downloads. Just a few shortcuts, a couple of clicks, and you’re recording before you even think twice about it.