Taking Advantage of Game Bar Utilities [Shortcuts/Config]

Overview

A quick list of default shortcuts for Win10’s new Game Bar, with an example configuration for Controller Companion that can be added to any profile as an extra set of key bindings.

A quick and dirty Game Bar guide

The latest Windows 10 update brings us an additional settings menu category for gaming, including Game Bar, which offers keyboard shortcuts for a variety of actions. To access the Game Bar options, open the Settings menu via the Start Menu and scroll down to Gaming. (Alternatively, open the X-Box app and go to Settings.) Game Bar is the first item in the submenu, although for some of its shortcuts to work properly, they’ll need to be further configured elsewhere in the submenu. The first thing you need to enable is right in the Game Bar menu; turn “record game clips, screenshots, and broadcast using Game bar” on. Next, you can choose whether or not you want to bind the Game bar to the (X) button found in the middle of x-box controllers; I recommend disabling this and configuring it via Controller Companion instead, so that you can use that button for other things in alternate keybindings.

The default shortcuts are:

Open game bar: win+g
Be sure to assign this to a button in at least one set of keybindings!

Take screenshot: win+alt+PrtScrn
Set a default save location in the Game DVR settings. You can also access your screenshots via the X-Box app via Game DVR. If you prefer another method of taking screenshots, such as the Steam overlay or a program like Lightshot, make sure your shortcut keys don’t conflict! Also, with both screenshots and video capture, Game bar/the X-Box app will read any data in its default save folder, regardless of what program you use to capture it. This is especially convenient for video, since the X-Box app (which can be launched directly from the Game bar) includes a trim function for clips – it’s great if you don’t have/don’t want to deal with more advanced video editing software for just one clip.

Record That: win+alt+g
Saves the past few moments as a game clip. Background recording has to be turned on in Game DVR settings. Beneath the on/off switch for background recording, there’s a dropdown menu that lets you select the length of background recording clips. I have this set at 5 minutes, because I don’t want to cut off desired content.

Start/Stop Recording: win+alt+r
Be sure to check your quality, audio, max length, and other settings in Game DVR. Again, if you prefer something like OBS or another screencapture program, the Game bar/X-box app will read any clips in its default save location.

Show Recording Timer: win+alt+t
Does what it says on the tin.

Microphone On/Off: win+alt+m
Again, pretty self explanatory.

Start/Pause Broadcast: win+alt+b
If you’ve made a Beam account and linked it to your X-box account, this will let you start and pause broadcasting. (Unfortunately, only Beam is currently supported, but if you don’t stream at all right now, this gives you a simple way to share game footage in real time with friends/family. Otherwise, stick with your current set-up. OBS in particular has support for hotkeys that provide the same function, and can also be mapped to controller companion.)

Show Camera in Broadcast: win+alt+w
Shows your webcam in Beam if you’ve configured broadcasting.

Controller Companion keybinds

Here’s an example of one possible configuration that uses game bar shortcuts, as an idea to get you started. Remember that the keybinds can easily be changed to use hotkeys from programs of your choice.

I prefer using LT/RT/LT+RT as my modifiers, since I use Controller Companion mostly with MMOs that have skills assigned to the number keys. However, this set-up will work as long as you have room somewhere for an extra set of keybindings – preferably one that you won’t activate on accident! The last thing you want is to be continually realizing you’ve accidentally stopped recording or streaming.

(X): launch game bar
A: take screenshot
B: start/stop recording
X: record past 5 minutes
Y: toggle mic on/off
LB: start/stop broadcast
Left stick press: show recording timer