Record your screen in W11 with revamped Snipping Tool

Microsoft is planning to turn Windows 11’s Snipping Tool into a screen recorder in a future update.

Currently, Snipping Tool can take screenshots only. The only way to record videos of your screen without installing a third-party program is to use Windows’ Xbox Game Bar app, which you can find by searching in the Start menu, or pressing the Windows key+G.

Despite its name, it works on Windows 10 and 11 computers, not just Xbox gaming consoles. If you don’t use the app, you have to download a program such as OBS Studio to record your screen. This has many more advanced features than Xbox Game Bar.

Microsoft revealed the screen-recording function in an event unveiling its new Surface devices (see opposite page), though didn’t give any details beyond showing it being used – with a Record button next to Snip (see screenshot).

It’s not known when screen-recording will be added, but it might be part of the first batch of new tools coming to Windows 11 after the 22H2 Feature update, which was released in September. These tools are expected to arrive in late October.

As well as screen-recording, Snipping Tool will soon automatically save screenshots in the Screenshots folder, within the Pictures folder. This has already appeared in a Preview build of Windows 11.

The new features come a year after Microsoft revamped Snipping Tool as part of its Windows 11 launch. It can be opened by pressing the Windows key+Shift+S, which in Windows 10 opens the ‘Snip & Sketch’ tool.

This brings up a menu with the options Rectangular Snip, Freeform Snip, Windows Snip and Fullscreen Snip. It also gives access to editing tools for making annotations or highlighting text.

WHAT WE THINK

Adding new features to tools isn’t always a good idea. Often they simply become cluttered with options that you never use. But it makes perfect sense for a tool that takes screenshots to also record your screen. It also makes sense to put the Record button next to Snip, so you don’t have to open another menu. If this arrives alongside tabs for File Explorer in the next few weeks, it will make the case for upgrading from Windows 10 even stronger. ■