Windows 10 features a new Screen Capture API for devs

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Screen Capture API windows 10

Windows 10 Spring Creators Update began rolling out to Insiders a few days ago. The update brings a series of new features that come in really handy.

For instance, the update comes with a new Screen Capture API that developers can use to record frames from a display or app window to create snapshots or video streams. The new feature will help developers create more interactive and collaborative experiences for users.

New screen capture API supports both display and window modes

Microsoft’s “Most Valuable Potato (MVP)” as he calls himself or simply Rafael Rivera made this announcement on his Twitter account. “New screen capture API in action needs “graphicsCapture” cap. Supports both display and window modes!” he posted.

So, the API invokes a secure system user interface targeting end users who can pick the display or app window that they want to capture. A yellow notification border will be drawn by the system around the actively captured item.

If there are multiple simultaneous capture sessions, a yellow border will be drawn around every one of the elements that are being captured. End users will have to provide explicit permission in order for the screen to be captured.

User feedback

After reading the announcement tweeted by Microsoft’s Rafael Rivera users seemed pleased that the Skype team’s requests had been taken into consideration. Other users also found the zoom in feature to be really useful here saying that “Sometimes turning on Magnifier at 100% zoom can help here, since it will drop the cursor back to software rendering.

If you’re wondering whether the new feature will need recorders, or if the streaming apps need to be rewritten to UWP in order to utilize this new API, the answer is pretty straightforward. As this is a UWP API, it should go without saying.

You can read more about this new feature on the Windows Dev Center page.

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