WMC Game user guide

How to
Setting up the hotkeys
Set up timeout and size
Sound operations
Set up recording folder
Game bar video settings
Settings not available with Game Bar
Troubleshooting

Windows Game Bar and WMC Game

The Game Bar (GameDVR) application included in Windows 10 and 11 allows users to capture PC games, videos, documents, and images from their computer screens. WMC Game is designed to assist users in optimally utilizing this feature. While the Windows Game Bar is utilized for recording games and videos, WMC Game introduces additional features to enhance the usage of the Game Bar, as outlined below:

· A user interface - for starting, stopping and monitoring the recording process

· Recording timeouts - for limiting recording duration

· Recording file sizes - for limiting the size of recording files

· Adjustable recording quality - selectable video bitrates and frame rates

· Adjustable recording window size - selectable HD and/or other recording window sizes

· Setting up Captures folders, renaming, converting recordings, and more

(See below - WMC Game settings not available with the Game Bar)

How to record games and videos with
the Game Bar and WMC Game

Press Window Key + G to check if the Game Bar is installed and running:

Windows Key + Alt + R - Windows Game Bar start/stop recording
Windows Key + G - Windows Game Bar settings and/or start/stop recording

WMC Game operating instructions

Launch WMC Game before starting the recording. The WMC Game interface opens in a minimized state and a few brief beeps are played to indicate its presence; click the taskbar icon to display the main screen.

Default hotkeys
Shift + Z - WMC Game Start/Stop
Shift + X - WMC Game status message
Shift + C - WMC Game mute/unmute beeps, show/hide status message

Two operating modes are available which can be selected from Options > Select Start/Stop modes.

Mode 1 - Using the Game Bar hotkeys (default)
Start/Stop - press the Game Bar hotkey Windows Key + Alt + R.
This starts the Game Bar recording and WMC Game monitoring.
When recording begins, the Game Bar logo is displayed, and the Record Start OK sound is played. When recording stops, the Record End OK sound is played. A mouse click on the Game Bar logo will also stop recording.

If a Timeout or a file Size limit are set up recording stops automatically when these limits are reached.

Mode 2 - Using the WMC Game hotkeys
This mode should be used if Mode 1 does not work on a computer (reason unknown). Unlike Mode 1, WMC Games uses its own hotkeys or buttons to get started while the Game Bar hotkey only starts the recording.

Start/Stop WMC Game press the WMC Game Start/Stop hotkey or click the Start button.
Start/Stop recording - press the Game Bar hotkeys Windows Key + Alt + R.
When recording begins, the Game Bar logo is displayed, and the Record Start OK sound is played indicating WMC Game is monitoring your recording.

Stop recording press the Start/Stop hotkey or, click the WMC Game Stop button (if visible) or, click the Game Bar logo. Recording will also stop automatically if a Timeout or a file Size limit are set up.

Important notes
Recording window focus: The recorded window must have the focus, otherwise recording does not begin. To set the focus, click the window top bar, minimize and restore the window or set the window Fullscreen. Fullscreen games always have the focus. (see also Troubleshooting on this)

Game Bar recording delay: After pressing the Game Bar hotkeys, the recording logo should be displayed showing recording is in progress. Sometimes, Gam Bar takes 5 to 10 seconds to begin recording and display the logo. You can try to press the Game Bar hotkeys one or two more times even if the Game Bar displays an error message.

Reset the Game Bar: if the Game Bar refuse to begin recording try a reset. Minimize all windows then press the Game Bar hotkeys. If WMC Game is running (minimized) you can hear a beep when doing this.

WMC Game settings not available with the Game Bar

1. Item 1 WMC Game provides audible feedback to indicate whether Game Bar did or did not initiate recording. Sometimes, Fullscreen games do not show the overlapped Game Bar logo. Recorded can be re-initiated from WMC Game without stopping the game.

2. Items 2 and 3 different timeout durations (seconds to hours) and file size limits (KB to GB) can be set up. Good for limiting your computer usage when learning, practicing, unattended computer, etc.

3. Items 4 and 5 different bitrates and window sizes can be set up especially when recording games and streaming movies on 2K and 4K monitors. Setting up the recording window size to HD (1920x1080) instead of UHD allows recording with less than 10% CPU loading and fluent image motion.

4. Items 6 WMC Game makes it easier to change the Game Bar recording folder. In addition, setting up the Game Bar folder the same as WM Capture recordings allows direct access to many useful options like video/audio conversion, audio compression, file merge, split, etc.

Set up WMC Game hotkeys

Click File > Hotkeys to open the Hotkey dialog

Hotkeys are necessary when using Mode 2, however once set up they can be used by Mode 1 too. As shown above, WM Game must first start using the Start/Stop hotkey before initiating the Game Bar recording.

Set up a Timeout and a file size limit

Before setting up a timeout click File > Game bar Captures settings to open the Game Bar settings and make sure the Max recording length is larger than your timeout.

Set up recording timeout - click Timeout on the main screen, WMC Message opens. Enter a time under Recording Time (hr:min:sec) then click OK on the message box to save. The estimated file size for the selected recording time is displayed.

Set up max recording file size - click Size to open the Max File Size dialog then enter the file size limit.

WMC Game sounds operation

Mute, Volume - open Options > Sounds.
Click Mute to toggle between mute/unmute all WMV Game sounds. Pressing A + S keys together also mutes all sounds.
Click WM sounds volume to toggle between normal volume and lower volume (1/10 volume). This setup does not affect the system volume. We recommend to turn on WMC sounds.

Game Bar video settings

Click Game Bar > Video Settings to open the Game Bar video settings dialog

Here you can setup a video quality by using Game Bar Standard or High quality or your own quality. On a small computer screen good quality recording of streaming movies can be achieved with a lower bitrate number which significantly reduces the recording file size. You can also specify the recording video size (720 or 1080) and the frame rate (30 or 60).

How to set up your recordings folder

Before any changes are made Windows sets up the folder Captures located under the library called Video as the recording folder for the Game Bar recordings (usually this folder location is
C:\Users\<your username>\Videos) . You can change or move the location and name of the Captures folder using WMC Game and the Game Bar Captions setup.

To change the Captures file name, open the Game Bar Captures from WMC Game (File > Game Bar Captures video settings) or from Windows (Windows key > Settings > Games > Captures)

· in the Game Bar Captures click Open folder to open Windows Explorer, find the folder name, change its name (you can only change the file name or the folder name, not the drive name, i.e. you cannot change C:\Name to D:\name or D:\name1)

· in WMC Game click File > Setup your Captures folder to open the 'Browse For Folder' dialog and select this new folder name

(note that the Game Bar Captures does not show the new name until you restart Windows however the recordings are saved in the new folder...duh!!).

To move the Captures folder to a different location, open Windows Explorer then Cut/Paste the folder to the new location.

To replace one external drive with another external drive, Cut/Paste the external drive folder to computer, insert the new drive and Cut/Paste the folder from computer to the new drive.

Troubleshooting

1. Game Bar shows message 'Recording isn't working"
This indicates that Game Bar did not find any focused window. Press Windows Key + G to open Game Bar settings and see if there is any window name listed (in the upper left corner). To set focus, click the window top bar, minimize and restore the window or set the window Fullscreen. Fullscreen games always have the focus.

2. Captures folder not found
When opened for the first time, WMC Game detects the Windows Captures folder name and location at startup. If there is a problem,

click File > Game Bar Captures video settings to open the Windows Captures setup, Here you can see the name of the Captures folder. Do the following

· in Windows Captures click Open folder to open Windows Explorer, copy the folder path from Windows Explorer

· in WMC Game click File, Setup your Captures folder to open the 'Browse For Folder' dialog, paste the path under Folder, click OK to exit

3. Captures folder moved to external drive
If your Captures folder is on an external drive and the drive is not connected when you turn ON computer Windows sets up a different Captures folder (usually C:\Users\>your username>Appdata\Local\Temp.) If you reconnect the same external drive the old folder name will be recognized and set up.

However, if you don't use the same driver, you're out of options. Don't try to rename or move the Temp folder. We recommend the following (we're not aware of other ways to do this):

· connect the new external drive

· in WMC Game click File > Setup your Captures folder to open the 'Browse For Folder' dialog and set up the new folder name

· close WMC Game and restart Windows with the external hard drive connected

4. Game Bar reset
If Game Bar repeatedly shows "Recording isn't working" try a reset by doing this:

· minimize all windows on your desktop then click the Game Bar hotkeys one or two times

· open a window, click Windows key + G to open Game Bar settings

· find out if the window name is listed under Capture

· click the Start Recording dot or press the Game Bar hotkeys

Important: The Game bar might fail to open the folder where recordings are saved, causing recording to stop working. This issue can occur if the computer has not been shut down or restarted for several days. To fix this, restart the computer to reactivate the Game bar.

5. Restart Windows Game Bar

Reset the Xbox Game Bar App:

· Open Settings > Apps > Apps & features.

· Find the Xbox Game Bar, click Advanced options, and select Reset.

· Restart your PC and try relaunching the Game Bar

Other troubleshooting tips

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/443550/my-xbox-game-bar-automatically-disabled-and-doesnt

https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/games-apps/game-setup-and-play/troubleshoot-game-bar-windows

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