Run the screen recorder from the system tray, and start it with Windows

The tray icon

The tray icon in the corner of the taskbar has a menu with the things you need during a game:

• Open Timeline
• Start / Stop recording
• Save clip
• Clip buffer on or off
• Open recordings folder
• Quit

Its tooltip shows the elapsed recording time and the state of the clip buffer. A click on the icon brings the window back.

Move to the tray while capturing

1. In the Recorder's More tab, turn on Move to tray while capturing.
2. Start recording or turn the clip buffer on.
3. Timeline hides its window and keeps running from the tray, and tells you once with a small pop-up (you can switch that notice off in Settings, General, Notifications).

Closing the window never stops a recording or the clip buffer. Closing while clipping asks what you want to do.

Why the window goes away

When Timeline moves to the tray it closes the window and frees its memory: in our measurements of the packaged app it sits at around 95 MB in the tray. The recorder itself keeps running in a small background part, so your clips and recordings are not affected.

Start with Windows

1. Open Settings, General.
2. Turn on Auto start Timeline. It starts when Windows boots.
3. Under it, Start in the tray decides whether it opens a window or just the tray icon (on by default).

Have clipping ready automatically

In the Recorder's More tab, Start clipping when Timeline starts turns the buffer on by itself, so you always have the last seconds ready ("Always have the last 30 seconds ready", or whatever length you chose). It never starts a full recording on its own; that is always your decision.

Together, Auto start, Start in the tray and Start clipping when Timeline starts give you a replay buffer that is simply there after every login: see save the last 30 seconds of gameplay.