How to Record Part of Your Screen in Windows 10

Windows 10 has no single built-in tool that records an arbitrary rectangle of the screen. You still have practical options. Xbox Game Bar records one app window. PowerPoint's Screen Recording lets you draw a capture area. OBS Studio can crop any capture source to an exact region. This guide covers all three so you can choose the one that fits your task.

Before you start

• Decide what "part of the screen" means for you. If it is a single application window, Xbox Game Bar is enough. If it is a custom area, such as one corner of a browser or a region spanning two windows, use PowerPoint or OBS Studio.
• Check your Windows 10 version and updates. Game Bar features and capture options vary between releases.
• All three methods record locally to your PC and do not need an online service to capture video. PowerPoint requires an installed, licensed copy. OBS Studio is a free desktop application that you install yourself.
• If you need narration, connect and test your microphone first. Decide whether system sound should be recorded too.
• Close or hide anything you do not want captured. Turn on Focus assist so that notifications do not pop up inside the recorded area.
• Make sure the target drive has enough free space. Long recordings at a high bitrate grow quickly.

Step-by-step instructions

Option 1: Record a single app window with Xbox Game Bar

• Open the app you want to record and click inside it so that it is the active window.
• Press Windows key + G to open Game Bar.
• In the Capture widget, click the record button, or press Windows key + Alt + R without opening the overlay.
• To turn the microphone on or off during recording, press Windows key + Alt + M or use the mic button in the Capture widget.
• Press Windows key + Alt + R again to stop.
• By default, the clip is saved to the Captures folder inside your Videos folder.

Game Bar records only the active app window. It cannot record a region you draw, the Windows desktop or File Explorer. You can adjust the frame rate, video quality and audio options in Settings > Gaming > Captures. The exact options depend on your Windows 10 version and graphics hardware.

Option 2: Draw a recording area with PowerPoint

• Open PowerPoint and create a blank presentation or open an existing one.
• On the Insert tab, choose Screen Recording. A small control dock appears at the top of the screen.
• Click Select Area and drag a rectangle around the part of the screen you want to capture.
• In the dock, toggle Audio and Record Pointer as needed.
• Click Record. Press Windows key + Shift + Q to stop when you are done.
• The recording is inserted on the current slide. Right-click it and choose Save Media as to export it as a separate video file.

Screen Recording is available in recent desktop versions of PowerPoint. If you do not see it on the Insert tab, your version may not include it. PowerPoint offers few encoding controls, so it suits quick tutorials better than high-quality capture.

Option 3: Crop an exact region with OBS Studio

• Install and open OBS Studio.
• In the Sources panel, click + and add Display Capture for a whole monitor, or Window Capture for one application.
• To keep only part of that capture source, right-click it, open Filters and add a Crop/Pad filter. Then set how many pixels to remove from the left, top, right and bottom. Another way is to hold Alt and drag the source edges in the preview.
• Open Settings > Video. Set the Base (Canvas) Resolution and Output (Scaled) Resolution to match the cropped area so the video has no empty borders. Choose the frame rate here as well.
• Open Settings > Output. Choose the recording path, the recording format and the encoder. In Advanced output mode, you can also set the rate control and bitrate.
• Check the Audio Mixer. Mute desktop audio or the microphone if you do not need them.
• Click Start Recording, then Stop Recording when finished. Use File > Show Recordings to open the output folder.

All of these changes are reversible. You can remove the filter, delete the source or return the video settings to your previous values at any time. If you record in MKV, use File > Remux Recordings to convert the file to MP4 without re-encoding. Some editors and players handle MP4 more reliably.

Check the output

• Play the file from start to finish. Confirm that only the intended area appears and that nothing private entered the frame.
• Right-click the file in File Explorer and open Properties > Details. There you can check the frame width and height, the frame rate and the bitrate against the settings you chose.
• Check that small text is readable at full size. Blurry text usually means the video bitrate is too low or the output resolution is scaled down.
• Listen for the microphone and system sound. Check that their levels are balanced and that they stay in sync with the picture.
• Check whether the mouse pointer appears or is hidden, as you intended.
• Open the file in the app or platform where you plan to use it, to confirm that it accepts the recording format.

Common problems and next steps

Game Bar does not open, or it says gaming features are unavailable: Game Bar does not record the desktop or File Explorer. Switch to an application window, or use PowerPoint or OBS Studio for partial screen recording of those areas. Also check that Game Bar is enabled in Settings > Gaming.

OBS shows a black capture source: on laptops with two graphics processors, Display Capture or Window Capture can appear black. Open the source properties and try a different capture method. Some protected video players also appear black by design, and no settings change will record them.

The recorded area is offset or the wrong size: this often happens after a change to display scaling or resolution. Redraw the area in PowerPoint, or adjust the Crop/Pad values and canvas size in OBS, then make a short test recording.

The video stutters or the file is too large: lower the frame rate, choose a hardware encoder if your graphics card offers one, or reduce the bitrate. For screen content with little motion, a lower frame rate usually keeps text sharp while reducing file size.

No sound in the recording: check that the correct microphone and output device are selected in Windows sound settings and in the recording tool. Confirm that the audio toggle was on before you started recording.