A Guide to Taking a Screenshot on a PC

This article will show you how to take screenshots from a Windows PC. These instructions are applicable to Windows 10, 8, 7 Vista, and XP.

4 Simple Ways to Take Screenshots of Windows 10

How to take a screenshot

You can take a screenshot in Windows using the same method regardless of which version of Windows you are using. Simply press the PrtScnkey at the keyboard.

• PrtScn A single press of the button saves a screenshot of the entire screen. A single click on the print screen button saves a screenshot of all connected monitors.
• Alt+ PrtScn To take a screenshot from a single window, press these buttons simultaneously. To ensure that the window is in focus, select it once and hit these keys.
• Win+ PrtScn The Windows key combined with the print screen button (in Windows 8 or newer) will take screenshots of the entire screen and save them in the default Pictures folder. In a subfolder called screenshots (e.g. C:\Users\[user]\Pictures\Screenshots).

How to Save or Paste a Screenshot

To save a screenshot, you can first copy it into the Microsoft Paint program. It’s easy to do this in Paint, as you don’t need to download it. Windows comes with it by default.

There are other ways to copy it, such as in Microsoft Word or Photoshop. But for simplicity’s sake, we will use Paint. You can open Paint in any version of Windows by using the Run dialog.

1. Use to Win+ R.
2. Type mspaint in the Run box, then press Enter.
3. Microsoft Paint is open. You should copy the screenshot to the clipboard. To paste the image into Paint, either uses CTRL+ V or select Copy.
4. To save the screenshot, press Ctrl+ _ S or choose File to save it.

Use the Windows Snipping Tool to take a screenshot of your PC

You can also use the Windows Snipping Tools to capture screenshots.

• Windows 10: Type the snipping program into the taskbar search box and choose the Snipping tool from the list of results.
• Windows 8 allows you to swipe in from the right side of the screen. Select Search and type snipping Tool into the search box. Finally, choose Snipping Tools from all the results.
• Windows 7: Click the Start Button, then type snipping tools into the search box and choose the Snipping Tools from all the results.

Get a Print Screen Software

Windows is great for basic screenshotting, but you can also install paid and free third-party apps for advanced features such as fine-tuning each pixel of the image, annotations before saving it, and easy saving it to a pre-defined location.

PrtScr is one example of a free screen tool that’s better than the Windows version. Another free tool, WinSnap is excellent, but it lacks some of its more advanced features.