How to Screen-Record on Any Laptop with Audio

You might want to capture your screen and audio to record a presentation, show off a gaming session, or create a review video. If you want to know how to screen-record on a laptop, you’re in luck – there are a lot of programs out there to help you do it.

Xbox Game Bar is an app that’s integrated into Windows 10 and up for PC laptops. This app allows users to capture their screens and share their gameplay with others. If you want to know how to record a screen on a laptop with this app, it just takes a few easy steps.

Movavi Screen Recorder is an excellent tool for quick, easy, and high-quality screen recordings. This program is intuitive and simple to use, even for the complete beginner. But it’s also powerful, giving you the opportunity to record multiple audio and video channels all at once. You can also record your full screen or only a part of it, depending on your needs.

Here’s how to screen record on a laptop with audio using Movavi Screen Recorder.

If you’re using a Windows laptop that runs on Windows 11, you’ll find that you have a built-in screen-recording tool. This is Snipping Tool, which you’ve probably used for screenshots in the past. But now, this little app can also be used for screen recording. You’ll need build number 22621.1344 or higher, so if you’re running an older version, first update your OS. Then you can get started.

If you’re wondering how to do a screen recording in a laptop with Snipping Tool, here’s how it works.

1. Open up whatever window you want to record.

2. Open Snipping Tool by clicking its shortcut or by pressing the Windows button + Shift + S.

3. Select a video recording by clicking on the video camera icon in the toolbar that pops up.

4. Click on New to call up the video-recording toolbar. Drag your cursor to highlight the area you want to record. 

5. When you’re ready, click the Start button. You can click Pause to temporarily stop recording at any time. When you’re finished, click the Stop button.

6. A window will pop up displaying your finished video. You can save or share the video directly from this window.

That’s it – simple and straightforward. However, if you are trying to do a laptop screen recording with audio, you might be disappointed. Microsoft still hasn’t got the Snipping Tool geared up to record with sound, so you only get video recording here.

If you’re using a Mac, you probably want to know how to start screen recording in a laptop. Are there any built-in tools, or do you have to download something?

Apple loves to keep things native as much as possible, so in fact, you’ll find that there are actually 2 built-in tools to use for screen recording. Both the Screenshot Toolbar and QuickTime Player can help you capture video on your laptop. Keep in mind that QuickTime Player has a couple of limitations. First, it only records microphone audio, but it can’t also record screen or system audio. Also, this program only records one video stream. You can only capture your screen video but not a webcam video stream at the same time.

1. Press Shift + Command + S to open up the toolbar.

2. There are two icons in the toolbar for recording a video. The solid rectangle with a gray circle over top will record your entire screen. If this is what you want to do, click it.

   The dashed rectangle with a gray circle over top will let you record only a part of your screen. If you click this icon, you’ll then be able to click and drag your mouse to delineate the part of your screen you’ll record.

3. When you’re ready, click Record. Pause or stop when you’re done, and then save your file at the end of your recording.

1. Open QuickTime Player from your Applications folder.

2. In the menu bar at the top, click File and then New Screen Recording.

3. You’ll see a control bar pop up, which lets you adjust audio controls. The slider at the bottom controls your input volume. The downward-pointing arrow next to the central red recording button lets you choose whether to record audio from your internal microphone or an external mic if you have one attached. If your external mic doesn’t come up in this pop-up menu, you may have to give QuickTime permission to use it in Settings.

4. When you’re ready, click the Record button. When you’re finished, click the Stop button.

5. Your video will then pop up automatically in a player window. That will let you save your video, edit it, or share it with others.

For recording on Linux, we recommend SimpleScreenRecorder. This program was created by Maarten Baert originally as a simple recorder. However, over time, he added more and more controls and options until the program was actually quite powerful and not so simple at all. It lets you choose between recording your whole screen or part of the screen only, or you can record from OpenGL apps directly. You can also capture audio from a webcam or a microphone, though it still can't record screen audio.

Here’s how to take a recording of your screen using SimpleScreenRecorder.

1. Download and install the recorder.
   Download SimpleScreenRecorder

2. Open up SimpleScreenRecorder in your Show Applications menu.

3. First, choose whether to record your whole screen, an OpenGL app, or part of your screen. If you choose part of your screen, you can then use your cursor to drag a rectangle to show the area to be captured.

4. Next, choose whether to record your cursor or not during your recording. If you’re doing a tutorial, you may want to show the cursor so others can see what you are clicking on.

5. Select whether to record audio and indicate the source device, whether that be an internal mic, external mic, or your webcam’s microphone.

6. Finally, select an output file name to save your recording.

7. Now click Start Recording or use Ctrl + R as a shortcut. You can pause anytime by using the same shortcut or by clicking Pause Recording. When you’re finished, click Save, and your screen recording is complete.

If you’re using a Chromebook from Google as your laptop, you’ll be happy to know that it has shortcuts to help you record your screen when you need to make a tutorial video or share an intense gaming session.

1. Use the hotkey command Shift + Control + Show Windows. 

2. A menu will show up at the bottom of your screen. From that menu, choose Screen Record.

3. You can then choose whether to record your full screen, part of your screen that you can select with your mouse, or choose a window to record.

4. Start recording to capture your screen. When you’re done, simply click Stop Recording.

We’ve given lots of suggestions for how to screen-record on a laptop using different built-in and downloadable apps. But you may be wondering, “How do I do a screen capture video without downloading any new software?”

The answer is recording your screen using an online application, like Screen Capture. This online app is robust and quite easy to use once you get the hang of it. It also gives you a full range of recording, letting you record screen video and your webcam together, plus both system and mic audio, all at once.

Here’s how to use Screen Capture to record your laptop screen.

1. Open up the website in your browser.
   Go to Screencapture.com

2. Choose your options for audio. You can tick the box for Microphone and Sound on or off, so you can capture one or both audio streams.

3. Tick the box for Webcam if you also want to record your webcam video stream.

4. Click Start Recording. This will open up a new dialogue box where you can choose to capture either a browser tab, your whole screen, or a specific window.

5. When you’re finished, click Stop Recording in the browser window. You’ll then be able to download your video.

If you’re worried about the security of an online app and don’t want to download any more software onto your laptop, you still have one more option for recording a screen on a laptop. That option is using a browser extension.

If you’re a Chrome user, try Movavi Screen Recorder for Chrome, which is a free extension that takes just minutes to download and install. With it, you can record your screen plus a webcam feed if you so choose, and you can also capture system audio.

Here’s how to record your screen using this extension.

1. Add Movavi Screen Recorder to Chrome as an extension and pin it to the Extensions menu at the top right of your browser.
   Download Movavi Screen Recorder for Chrome

2. Open the extension from that menu. You can then choose whether you want to record your whole screen or just one tab from Chrome. You can also click on Embed Webcam to include that video stream. 

3. Set your audio-recording preferences. You can choose to record your mic or tab sound, or both.

4. Click to Start Recording, and when you’re done, click Stop. You’ll then see the option to download your video.