How to Screenshot on Windows

Start by locating the Print Screen button on your keyboard before moving to the next step. The key is always branded in short as “PrtSc” or “PrtScrn.” It’s usually located on the topmost row of keys, on the top-left of the backspace button. After finding the print screen key, then you can proceed seamlessly.

Organize or arrange your screen in a manner that you’d like it to appear on your screenshots before proceeding to capture the entire screen.

After that, hold down the “⊞ Win” key on your keyboard and then press on the “PrtSc” simultaneously. On some computers, doing that may cause a mild flicker on your screen with a shutter sound, while other computers dim the screen to show that a screenshot has been taken. However, some computers may show no sign at all, and it will be upon you to find out from your screenshots folder.

Having done that, it’s now time to find the screenshot you have just taken. By default, any screenshot taken will get saved in the “Screenshots” folder located in the “Pictures.” Now, to locate your screenshot, hold down the “⊞ Win” key on the keyboard of your computer and then press on the letter “E” (⊞ Win + E). Doing that will prompt the Windows File Explorer to open.

Click on the “Picture” option located on the left pane. If you can’t see the option, then click on the down-pointing arrow below the “This PC” to see more options.

After that, double-click the “Screenshots” folder in the left pane. This prompts the folder to open. In the open folder, look for the latest screenshot. This will always have the highest number of values on the title. Then, double-click on the screenshot to open and view it. And that’s pretty much it. If you’d wish to take a screenshot of one window only, use the next procedure.

Start by opening the window that you’d wish to capture. If you have the windows already open, all you should do is to navigate and click on its title bar located at the top to get it selected.

After doing that, hold down “alt” and the “PrtSc” keys (Alt+ PrtScr) at the same time. By doing that, your screenshot will be copied to the clipboard. Note that some computer keyboards may require pressing on “Alt”+ “Fn” + “PrtSc” instead of “Alt” + “PrtScr”

After copying your screenshot to the clipboard, the next step involves pasting the screenshot where you’d wish to. You can paste it either into an image editor such as Paint 3D to edit and save it. Alternatively, if you intended to use the screenshot in your chat, you can navigate to the conversation or paste it on the email chat. If you’d like to edit it further, proceed to the next step to use Paint 3D (Optional).

Search for Paint by clicking on the “Paint” icon in the taskbar, or by typing the word “Paint” in the search bar and hitting on the “Enter” key to get the image, and then click on it.

Having done that, hold down the “Ctrl” key and then press “V” (Ctrl + V) to paste your screenshot on the “Paint.” If you’d like to trim or clip your screenshot, click on the “Crop” tool located on the upper side of paint and then select the part you’d like to retain and save.

After that, navigate and click on the file menu and then click on the “Save” option. By doing that, a dialogue for “Save As …” will appear on the screen.

Then choose your screenshot location from the folders displayed. To keep your screenshots in a more organized way, click on the “Pictures” In the pictures folder, locate the “Screenshots” and then double-click on it to open.

Next, type in the file name into the “Filename” field with texts highlighted in blue. This is located at the bottom of the window.

With that done, proceed to the “Save As Type” just below the file name.

Finally, click on the “Save” to get the screenshot saved to the selected location.

Before you take a screenshot, arrange your screen the way you’d want it to appear on the screenshot. If you wish to capture only a small portion of your screen or full screen, arranging your screen makes your screenshot to appear neat and presentable.

After that, look for the “Snip & Sketch” and open it. You can do this using two different methods. You can find it by typing “Snip” into your window’s search field. From the search results that appear, click on the “Snip & Sketch.” Alternatively, you can use keyboard shortcuts by pressing on the “⊞ Win + ⇧ Shift + S” all at once.

Navigate to the upper-left and click on the blue “New” button. By doing that, four icons will pop up on the upper part of the screen. However, this shouldn’t arise if you used keyboard shortcuts.

Having done that, it’s now time to choose the type of screenshot that you’d want to use. The options include:

Take a full-Screen Screenshots.

Find out where the “Prt SC” option is located on your keyboard to avoid wasting time looking for the key when you start the steps. It’s always located on the first row of keys above the top-left side of the backspace key.

Organize your screen to take a clutter-free image. Screenshots taken from the neatly organized screens are presentable. Also, ensure that there is no distraction from the apps and other PC programs.

With your left hand holding the “⊞ Win” key, press on the “Prt SC” using the right side. By doing that, your screen will flash dim to indicate that the screenshot has been captured. If you’re using an old computer with an upgraded Windows operating system, your screen may not show any sign of taking screenshots if it has some display settings not enabled. If you press on the “⊞ Win + Prt Sc,” then try pressing on the “Ctrl+⊞ Win+ Print Screen” or “Fn+⊞ Win+ Print Screen”

After taking the screenshots, it’s now the time to find the folder they’re located in. By windows default, screenshots are stored in the “Pictures” folder with the numbers tagged at the top. To get your screenshot, look for the one with the highest number tag.

View your screenshot. If you’d wish to open and view your screenshot, double-click on it, and it’ll open. After that, you can move the screenshot to another folder or edit it if you wish to.

Take a full-screen screenshot and save to clipboard.

Clear the screen that you want to screenshot off distractions from your windows to get a clear screenshot. Next, navigate the screen that you want to print.

After that, locate the print screen key, always shortened as “Prt SC” located in the first row of the keys (function keys). You are having done that, press on the “Prt SC” key.  For some computers with the “Fn” key on the last row of the keys, you might be required to press the “Fn + Prt SC” keys at once to save the screenshot to the clipboard.

Next, launch the “Paint” To do that, go to the Start menu and open the search box and type in “Paint” Then, select the “paint” from the result.

When the paint window opens, press on the “Ctrl + V” to get the photo pasted in Paint. As soon as you do that, your screenshot will appear in the Paint window.

With that done, hold down the “Ctrl” key and press on the “S” key to get the screenshot to save on the paint window. Next, click on the folder that you’d wish to save your screenshots in and then click on the “Save” button.

Arrange items on your screen the way you’d like it to appear in the image. If some other applications and settings can cause distraction on the image taken, ensure they are turned off.

Launch the snipping tool. This program is available for all window versions except that of basic editors and starter. Unfortunately, it’s also unavailable in windows XP. To find the program, click on the start and then type “Snipping tool” and a list of search results will appear. Click the Snipping Tool to open it.

When the program opens, select the snip shape that you’d want to use. Based on your preference, you can choose the shape from the available options such as free-form snip, rectangular snip, and full-screen snip.

Make adjustments on your snip border. It’s important to note that a red border will always appear around any snip that you make by default. Fortunately, you can easily change the red border by navigating to the Tools tab in the top-left tab. Then, get to the drop-down menu and click on the “Options” Lastly, unmark the box next to the “Show selection ink after snips are captured.” Now, the red border will no longer appear in your snip.

Create your new snip by clicking on the “New” button. By doing that, you will notice that your screen or window becomes faint to allow you to start drawing a new snip. Then release the mouse when selecting the snipped area to create a new snip. However, if you selected a full-screen size snip, your snip gets created as soon as you click on “New.”

When the new snip opens in a new window, it’s now time to annotate it. To do that, use the drawing tools, and highlights to make attention-grabbing drawings and texts. If you make some mistakes, do not fear to use the “Erase”  to remove the mess as it will only erase your art but not your screenshot.

After creating and decorating a new snip, it’s now time to save your work. You can save your finished snip by clicking on the storage disk located on the upper part of the window. Doing that will open a save dialogue window. Next, type in the file name and make adjustments in the “Save As” field. Since the snip is always copied to your clipboard by default when you create it, you can easily paste it on Paint, word, email, as well as in chats by pressing Ctrl + V.

Get to the program or page that you want to screenshot and ensure it’s free from any clutter from other programs and settings. If you do not move the distractions on the screen that you want to capture, you will end up with an untidy image.

Having done that, hold on the “⊞ Win + ⇧ Shift + S” keys all at once to start creating your snip. By doing that, your screen will turn faint. At the same time, you will notice that your cursor also has turned into a crosshair icon.

After that, select the area that you want to capture. For instance, if you’d wish to capture the entire screen, click and drag your mouse from the upper left corner to the bottom-right.

Next, take a screenshot of the selected area and save it to the clipboard. After dragging your mouse around the area to screenshot, release the mouse. By doing that, a screenshot of the selected area will be taken and saved on your clipboard automatically. With the screenshot saved to the clipboard, you can go pasting it in any platform that supports texts and pasted images.

Paste the screenshot where you intended to use it. To paste your snip, open a program that supports pasted photos and then holds on the Ctrl + V on your keyboard. When you do that, your screenshot was saved to your clipboard should appear in the selected area in the program.

Finally, press down the “Ctrl” key and then press on the “S” key (Ctrl + S). In the new window that opens, type in the name of your file and then choose the location folder in which you’d wish to save your folder and finally click on the “Save” button to get your screenshot saved. And that’s it.

Navigate to the first page that you’d wish to capture in a screenshot. Ideally, this should be the initial page in the series of screenshots that you want to take.

After that, open start by clicking at the windows logo located in the lower-left corner of your screen. This will prompt a startup menu to appear.

Next, launch the “Run” program. For you to do that, type “run” and then navigate to the top of the start window to click on the “Run”.

Having done that, type in the “psr.exe” into the Run window. After that, navigate to the bottom of the window and click on the “Ok” Doing that prompts a small rectangular bar to open on the upper part of the screen.

After that, go ahead and click on the “Start Record” located on the upper part of the toolbar. Doing so activates the steps Recorder. This will record the change in the consecutive 25 screens. If you’d wish to record screens more than 25, click on the dropdown found on the right side. With that done, click on the “Settings” and make changes on the “Number of recent screen captures to store”.

Next, navigate through your screens, one at a time, and as the Steps recorder takes the screenshots.

After that, click on the “Stop Record” button located on the upper side of the toolbar. Doing that prompts the program to stop recording changes in the screens and instead open the result window.

Next, review all your screenshots and ensure that all the screens got captured before you can go ahead and save the screenshots.

Navigate to the top of the window and click on the “Save” option. Having done that, type in the name of your file and choose the folder in which you’d prefer saving it.  Finally, click on the “Save” button. This will keep your files in a zipped folder in the selected destination. Go it? Give a pat on your back.

Capture entire screen.

Navigate to the screen that you want to edit and ensure that it’s free from pop-up windows or other distractors.

After that, press on the “Prt SC” By doing that, a full-screen screenshot will be taken and saved on your computer’s clipboard.  The image will get saved with the same resolution as that of your screen or monitor.  If you aren’t successful in capturing a screenshot using the print screen key, try using the “Fn + Insert”.

Proceed and open a word document. If you cannot access a word document, create a new one, or navigate to any app that supports pasted images. Such apps include Paint, Outlook, word, and email app.

Next, paste the screenshot in your preferred destination by first clicking on the field and then pressing the “Ctrl + V” keys on your computer keyboard. Alternatively, you can paste the screenshot by clicking on the “paste” option from the “Edit” drop-down located in the menu bar.

Review the screenshot.  After pasting the screenshot, you can view it to find out if it’s what you expected. You can also edit the image if you wish.

Capture a specific window.

Navigate to the window that you want to capture by clicking on it.

Next, hold down the “Alt” key on your keyboard and then press on the “Prt SC” key. This will save the image in your computer’s clipboard. If you find the print screen key missing on your keyboard, you shouldn’t panic. All you should do is to hold down the “Fn” key and click on the “Insert” key instead.

After that, you can open a word document and paste the screenshot in it or create a new one and paste the screenshot inside. Alternatively, you can paste the screenshot in any program that supports pasted images. To paste your image, press on “Ctrl + V” on your computer keyboard. After pasting the image, you can decide to either edit it before use or use it the way it is.

Open the “Start” menu located in the bottom-left corner of your computer screen. After that, click on the “Search”

Now, type “Snipping tool” in the search bar and then click on the “Snipping Tool” from the results. Doing that prompts a dialogue box to open.

When through with that, click on the “Mode” located in the menu bar found in the dialogue box.

After that, select the “Rectangular Snip” option to capture a rectangular image. However, you can also choose other shapes that impresses you.

Click and drag the cursor on the screen to outline and give the image a rectangular shape or any other shape that impresses you.

Next, click on the “Save snip” button with a floppy disk-like icon located on the upper part of the screen. Doing so prompts a “Save As” window to open. In the open dialogue window, type in your file’s name and decide on where to save it. However, do not change the file format from PNG, which is the default windows format.

Finally, click on the “Save” button. This saves the screenshot to your selected folder in PNG format.