How to open the Xbox Game Bar

The Xbox Game Bar is one of many useful features hiding just beneath the Windows interface. It is geared mostly toward gamers and streamers but has several useful features which anyone can utilize. It launches multiple resizable, movable, translucent, click-through widgets when opened. These widgets carry many useful utilities, such as:

Resource management (RAM, CPU, VRAM, FPS)
Spotify
Screen capture (both screenshots and clips)
Xbox Achievements
Audio adjustments for separate apps

You can also get more widgets from the Widget Store.

How to open the Xbox Game Bar

There are two primary ways to launch the Xbox Game Bar: The keyboard shortcut ⊞ (Win) + G and the app icon from the Start menu. The former is preferable, as it does not require you to leave the window you are working on (having to open the Start menu would beat the tool's purpose).

Once you hit the hotkey, several black widgets will appear on your screen. Move them around and change their transparency to suit your preference. Some of the most useful features of the Game Bar are listed below.

Performance at a glance

While this feature is predominantly used by gamers, it is handy for anyone. It shows you important device stats like the percentage of RAM, VRAM, CPU usage, current FPS, and more. It also displays how much of your resources are being used by each app.

Audio controls

This might well be the best feature of the Xbox Game Bar. It allows you to control the volumes of all your running apps individually. That means you can voice chat in Discord, watch a video on YouTube, and attend a meeting all at the same time. While some of these apps allow volume control, having all of them in the same place is much more convenient.

Screen recording

While you already can take screenshots even without Xbox Game Bar, it gives you the ability to record your screen indefinitely, with no watermark, at native resolution. Since it is a part of Windows, the widget is optimized by Microsoft to take up as little RAM as possible, meaning that you do not have to compromise performance to record your screen.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Xbox Game Bar packs a ton of helpful features directed at gamers but is useful for pretty much every user. Since it is free and integrated into Windows, it is definitely worth trying.

Edited by Sijo Samuel Paul