By taking a screenshot, you can capture an image of your entire display—or just an area of it. Windows 10 has a variety of built-in tools for easily capturing a screenshot, and we’ve also got some even more powerful third-party tools to recommend.
Apr 15, 2020 This is an easy guide on how to capture any screen activities on Windows 10, 8, 7 and XP computer, with audio or not, in full screen or just a selected area. Video is changing our lifestyle! We spend more time on video streaming services to enjoy movies, TV shows, sports matches, live broadcasts and such. Nov 05, 2021 Use Shift-Windows Key-S and Snip & Sketch. After many years of using Snagit (see below), this has become my primary screenshot method. Hit the Shift-Windows Key-S keyboard combo, and you have a. Jul 09, 2020 Using Snip & Sketch Hotkeys to Take A Screenshot. Press ‘Windows logo key + Shift + S’. Click and drag the cursor to select the area you want a screenshot of. Open the prompt in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen to preview the screenshot. In the top right corner, click the save icon to save your screenshot. Jun 03, 2021 This wikiHow teaches you different ways to take a full or partial screen capture on your Windows 10 PC. The simplest and most full-featured way to capture any part of your screen is to use Snip & Sketch, Microsoft's new built-in screenshotting tool.
Take a Screenshot with Print Screen (PrtScn)
The Print Screen key on your keyboard can take a screenshot. Depending on the keyboard shortcut you use, you can save the screenshot as a PNG image file or copy it to your clipboard so you can paste it into any application.
The prtscn key is usually found between the F12 key and Scroll Lock key on the top row of your keyboard. It may be labeled something like “PrtScn,” “PrntScrn,” or “Print Scr” instead. On full-size keyboards, look above the Insert key.
On laptop keyboards, the Print Screen key may be combined with another key, but it will be located in that general area of the keyboard. You may have to press your laptop’s “Function” or “Fn” key while using the shortcuts here.
Save Your Screenshot as a File
Press Windows+Print Screen to save a screenshot as a file. In other words, press and hold the Windows logo key and tap the Print Screen key, which may be labeled something like PrtScrn or PrtScn. (On a laptop keyboard, you may have to use Windows+Fn+PrtScn.)
Tip: If you’re using a Windows 10 tablet or 2-in-1 convertible PC without a keyboard, press Power+Volume Down to take a screenshot. If you see a Windows logo button on your tablet’s display, press Windows+Volume Down instead.
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The screen will dim for a moment, providing visual confirmation. The screenshot will appear as a PNG file in a folder named “Screenshots” inside your user account’s “Pictures” folder. If you take multiple screenshots, each will be automatically labeled with a number.
In other words, you will likely find your screenshot at the following location: C:UsersNAMEPicturesScreenshots
Note: Your screen will only flash while taking a screenshot if you have the “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing” setting enabled. To control whether or not your screen flashes, toggle this option.
Save a Screenshot to Your Clipboard
To copy an image of your screen to your clipboard, just press the Print Screen key (or Fn+Print Screen on some laptops).
Windows will save an image of your screen to the clipboard. You can paste it into almost any application: An image editor, a word processor, or anything else that supports images. Just select Edit > Paste or press Ctrl+V to paste as you normally would.
Tip: If you have Windows 10’s clipboard history enabled, Windows will remember the last few things you copied to your clipboard—including screenshots.
Save a Screenshot of a Single Window to Your Clipboard
To capture a screenshot of just one single window instead of your entire screen, press Alt+Print Screen. (On some laptops, you may need to press Alt+Fn+Print Screen instead.)
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Windows will save an image of the current window to your clipboard, so be sure to select the window you want to capture first. You can either click somewhere inside the window or use Alt+Tab to focus it.
Use Snip & Sketch to Take Screenshots
Windows 10 has a built-in Snip & Sketch tool that provides more powerful screenshot options. You can use it to take a screenshot of a specific region of your screen, capture a screenshot on a delay, or annotate your screenshots.
Note: Windows 10 still contains the classic Snipping Tool, which was introduced in Windows Vista. You can still use the Snipping Tool if you’re familiar with it. However, it’s being phased out in favor of the modern Snip & Sketch tool. Snip & Sketch has all the same options as the Snipping Tool—and more.
Take a Screenshot of Part of Your Screen
To quickly take a screenshot with Snip & Sketch, press Windows+Shift+S. Your screen will appear grayed out and your mouse will transform into a crosshair.
You will see a bar of several buttons near the top of your screen. Select the function you want. From left to right, here’s what the buttons do:
- Rectangular Snip: You will be able to draw a rectangle over your screen with your cursor. Windows will save a screenshot of the area inside the rectangle.
- Freeform Snip: You can outline an arbitrary shape on your screen with your cursor (or a stylus or finger on a touch screen). Windows will save a screenshot of the area you draw around.
- Window Snip: The cursor will function as a crosshair. You can position it over a window and click to take a screenshot of just that window.
- Fullscreen Snip: This button takes a screenshot of your entire display.
- Close Snipping: Close the overlay without taking a screenshot. (You can also press Esc on your keyboard to do this.)
Snip & Sketch will remember your last used option when you use the keyboard shortcut to open it.
Annotate or Crop a Screenshot
When you take a screenshot, you will get a notification saying the screenshot was copied to your clipboard. You can paste it into any other application that supports image files. (Use Edit > Paste or Ctrl+V to paste.)
If the notification goes away before you can click it, you will find the notification in Windows 10’s Action Center.
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For more options, click the notification. This will open the Snip & Sketch window with options for writing on, highlighting, erasing, and cropping areas of the image.
There’s also a “Save” button, which will let you save your screenshot as an image file from here.
(The interface will vary according to window size. With a larger Snip & Sketch window, all the options are on the top toolbar. If you resize the window and make it smaller, some of the options will move to a bottom toolbar.)
Take a Delayed Screenshot
In some cases, taking a screenshot on a delay can help you capture a menu or other interface element that won’t appear unless you’re interacting with it. Snip & Sketch can take a screenshot on a three or ten-second delay.
To find this option, you will need to open the Snip & Sketch application window directly. Click the Start button (or press the Windows Key), search for “Snip,” and launch the “Snip & Sketch” application shortcut.
To the right of the “New” button in the Snip & Sketch window, click the down arrow and select either “Snip in 3 seconds” or “Snip in 10 seconds.”
Tip: If you click menu > Options in the Snip & Sketch window, you will find options to open Snip & Sketch when you press Print Screen, choose whether or not Snip & Sketch automatically copies screenshots to your clipboard, and add an outline around your snips (screenshots).
Capture a Screenshot (or Video) With the Game Bar
How To Do A Screen Capture In Windows 10 Download
Windows 10 includes a feature named the Xbox Game Bar. Despite the name, it’s really more of a gaming-focused overlay with a variety of features. It’s particularly useful for taking screenshots of PC games.
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By default, Windows+Alt+Print Screen will take a screenshot of the current game or desktop application with the Game Bar. (On some laptops, you may have to press Windows+Alt+Fn+Print Screen.)
You’ll see a “Screenshot saved” notification, and you can click that notification to see your Game Bar screenshots. You can also press Windows+G to open the Game Bar.
To configure the Game Bar, head to Settings > Gaming > Xbox Game Bar. From here, you can enable or disable the Game Bar feature and customize the keyboard shortcuts that perform these actions. So, if nothing happens when you press these keys, check to see if this feature is enabled in Settings.
Screenshots you take with this tool are saved to C:UsersNAMEVideosCaptures. (Yes, even screenshots are shared to the Videos folder.)
RELATEDHow to Use Windows 10's Built-in Screen Capture Tool
The Game Bar also lets you record videos of your Windows 10 screen. You can even use it to record videos of your desktop or any other application. You can record much more than just games. The video file will be saved to the C:UsersNAMEVideosCaptures folder in H.264 MP4 format.
Take Screenshots With Greenshot, a Free Application
Our favorite free screenshot tool for Windows—aside from the tools built into Windows 10 itself, which are extremely capable—is Greenshot. It’s free and open-source, and it’s packed with additional features like customizable keyboard shortcuts.
Greenshot runs in your system tray where it provides useful options like “Capture Window From List,” which lets you quickly capture a screenshot of any running window from a context menu.
Take Screenshots the Easy Way With SnagIt, a Powerful Tool
Windows 10 is packed with useful screenshot features and Greenshot is a powerful tool, but each of the above methods has its own limitations. If you take a lot of screenshots and want more flexibility and options, you might want something even more powerful.
If you don’t mind spending a few dollars on a screenshot tool, SnagIt by Techsmith is an incredibly powerful screenshot application. It makes taking screenshots easy and has features for targeting specific windows and capturing the full text of scrolling windows like web pages in your browser.
SnagIt can also record videos of your screen, turn them into animated GIFs (if you like), add video from your webcam and audio from your microphone, and help you easily trim those video clips so you can only include what’s important.
Beyond that, SnagIt can extract text from screenshots, annotate them, replace text in the screenshots, and do pretty much else you imagine a screenshot tool should be able to do. It’s a great application that we recommend, especially if you need to take a lot of screenshots.
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TechSmith offers a free trial of SnagIt so you can see if it meets your needs before buying it. If you take a lot of screenshots, we think you’ll have a hard time going back to the more barebones tools built into Windows.
READ NEXT- › Using Windows 10’s New Screenshot Tool: Clips and Annotations
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Summary :
For some reason, you may need to take a full or partial screenshot on your Windows 10 computer. You can just use the Windows built-in tools or keyboard shortcuts to do this work and it is very simple. In this post, MiniTool Software will show you some methods that are suitable for you.
Taking a screenshot of your Windows screen is a common operation when using your computer. For example, you may want to take a full or partial screenshot in Windows 10 and then share it with your friend you are chatting with. Of course, there are some other situations in which you want to capture screenshots in Windows 10.
Some of you may don’t know how to do this work. Don’t worry, we will tell you how to do it using different methods.
How to Take a Partial Screenshot in Windows?
In this part, we will show you how to perform a Windows 10 partial screenshot using four methods. You can just select your preferred one to do this job.
How to Screenshot a Specific Area in Windows 10?
- Use the Print Screen Key
- Press Win+Shift+S
- Use Windows Snipping Tool
- Use Windows Snip & Sketch
Method 1: Use the Print Screen Key
There is a Print Screen key on your keyboard. Just like the name of the key, it is used to print the current screen of your computer. If you are using a wired keyboard, it is usually on the top-right side of the keyboard. If you are using a laptop, you can find it on the top line or the bottom line of the keyboard. The Print Screen can be shown as Print Screen or PrtSc.
How to screenshot a specific area in Windows 10? It is very easy:
- Press the Print Screen Key and you will see a small menu on the top middle side of your computer screen.
- Select the area you want to capture. The screenshot will be saved to the clipboard. Of course, you can click one of the icons in the menu according to your need to take a screenshot.
- Open an application like Paint or Word and paste the screenshot to it.
- Edit the screenshot or save it to a suitable location.
Method 2: Press Win+Shift+S
Pressing Win+Shift+S is equal to pressing the Print Screen key. It also calls out the small menu and you can then select the section you want to take on your computer screen. We will not repeat the steps here.
Where do screenshots go on PC? Where are print screens saved? How to find screenshots location? This post covers these answers to these questions.
Method 3: Use Windows Snipping Tool
Windows Snipping Tool is a Windows snap-in tool. It has more features than the Print Screen key.
- Use Windows search to search for snipping tool and select the first result to open it.
- Click New.
- Choose the area you want to screenshot.
- The screenshot will show in the tool. You can use this tool to annotate the screenshot. You can also use the features in this tool to make up the screenshot.
- Go to File > Save As to choose a suitable location to save it.
Method 4: Use Windows Snip & Sketch
Windows Snip & Sketch is another choice for you to take a partial screenshot in Windows 10. It is also a Windows snap-in tool.
- Use Windows Search to search for snip & sketch and select the first result to open it.
- Click New and then select the area you want to capture.
- The screenshot will be opened in the Snipping Tool.
- Click the Save As button to save the screenshot on your computer.
How to Take a Full Screenshot in Windows 10?
Take a full screen in Windows 10 is also very simple. We will show you four methods in this part.
How to Screenshot a Full Screen in Windows 10?
- Press Win+Print Screen
- Press Win+Shift+Print Screen
- Use Windows Snipping Tool
- Use Windows Snip & Sketch
Method 1: Press Win+Print Screen
The shortcut combination of Win+Print Screen can capture the full screen of your computer. your computer will flash once after your press Alt+Print Screen and the screenshot will be automatically saved to This PC > Pictures > Screenshots.
Method 2: Press Win+Shift+Print Screen
You can also press Win+Shift+Print to take a full screen. But this time, you need to paste the screenshot to Paint or Word and then save it.
Method 3: Use Windows Snipping Tool
Windows Snipping Tool can also be used to take full screenshots in Windows 10. You can call it out and then select the whole screen to capture. After that, you can also use this tool to edit the image according to your requirements.
Method 4: Use Windows Snip & Sketch
Likewise, you can use Windows Snip & Sketch to capture the full screen in Windows 10. You need to use your mouse to select the full screen to capture after you open the tool. If needed, you can use this tool to edit the image.
Screen Capture Windows 10 Free
Bottom Line
Now, you should know how to take a full or partial screenshot in Windows 10. If you delete your important screenshots by mistake, you can use a free file recovery tool, MiniTool Power Data Recovery, to restore them.
If you encounter issues when capturing your computer screen, you can let us know in the comments. We will reply to you as soon as possible.