You have rescently upgraded to Windows latest 2018 version and want to know How to Take Screenshots (Print Screen) on Windows 10 ? then you are on right page. Here I will explain you step-by-step on various methods to take a screenshot using built-in tools like printscreen and mind it that most of the methods are also applicable on Windows other versions such as 7, 8, XP and 10.
If you are comparing with Apple Mac, the screenshot process is much more simpler. [ See Mac screenshot process ]
Windows provides you plenty of built-in tools like the Snipping Tool, different keyboard and physical button shortcuts, and if you are not satisfied with built-in tools, then you can go for thousands of third-party tools available across internet.
Like Mac in Windows also you can save the full screen, the active window, or a rectangular selection to a file or copy to the Clipboard for pasting into another application.
So I have tried to make this intuitive screenshot guide, with several different ways to take a screenshot on your Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows XP & windows 10 desktop PCs or laptops or even on surface tabs.
INDEX | |||
| 1 | How to take a screenshot of your entire screen? | Windows 7, 8, XP, 10 | Jump to Topic |
| 2 | How to take a screenshot of your entire screen & save to drive? | Windows 7, 8, XP, 10 | Jump to Topic |
| 3 | How to take a screenshot of active window? | Windows 7, 8, XP, 10 | Jump to Topic |
| 4 | How to take a screenshot of your entire screen & share on social networks? | Windows 7, 8, XP, 10 | Jump to Topic |
| 5 | How to take a screenshot of your entire screen on Windows Surface device? 2 methods | Microsoft Surface or an ASUS Vivotab or a Dell Venue Tablets | Jump to Topic |
| 6 | How do I take a partial screenshot? | Windows 7, 8, XP, 10 | Jump to Topic |
| 7 | How do I take a partial screenshot? | Windows 10 only | Jump to Topic |
| 8 | Using function key to take a Screenshot on Windows Laptop, Tablet or keyboard | Keyboards with Alt key dell & hp laptops | Jump to Topic |
| 9 | How to take screenshots of the active game window? | Windows 10 Creators Update only | Jump to Topic |
| 10 | Take and share screenshots | Windows 8.1 only | Jump to Topic |
| 11 | How to take screenshots of the entire screen, an active window or crop using a Snip Editor? | Windows 7, 8, XP, 10 | Jump to Topic |
| 12 | How to take a screenshot on a Dell tablet? | Dell Tablet | Jump to Topic |
| 13 | How to take a screenshot on Surface Go? | Windows Surface Go | Jump to Topic |
| 14 | Windows 10 Version 1809 Snip Bar screenshot [ new tool ] | Windows 10 Version 1809 | Jump to Topic |
| 15 | How to take a screenshot using Microsoft Edge? | Windows 10 | Jump to Topic |
| Reference Guide 1) How do I know which version of Windows 10 I have? 2) Where is my snipping tool windows 10? 3) Snipping tool download 4) What to do if I don’t have Print Screen key on my laptop or desktop ? | Jump to Topic | ||
Applicable to : OS Windows XP and Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. Dell laptop, Dell Computer, hp laptop, lenovo laptop, acer laptop, asus laptop, asus notebook and all other brands.
This is the most famous method so far known since ages! and till today it works in all versions of Windows.
To capture your entire screen, tap the PrtScn button. (Print Screen key) or CTRL + PrtScn keys.
Windows captures a screenshot of the whole screen and copies it to the clipboard ( Read more on clipboard on Microsoft website)
Remember that Windows do not save the screenshot to any file but copies it to memory of computer.
Now you can open open an image editing tool like Microsoft Paint), and press CTRL + V keys to paste the screenshot into the editor. Now you do some basic editing (if needed) and then save the image file to local drive in any format like BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PNG.
Alternatively you can also open any other application like PowerPoint, MSWord or even chat software’s like WhatsApp, Snapchat and directly paste the screenshot using CTRL + V key combination.
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Applicable to : Windows 8, 8.1 and 10, Dell laptop, Dell Computer, hp laptop and all other brands
To capture your entire screen and automatically save the screenshot to the local drive
Simply tap the Windows Key ⊞ + PrtScn.
Your screen will briefly go dim just to indicate that windows has captured a screenshot, and the entire screen image screenshot will be automatically saved to the Pictures library > Screenshots folder.
The file will be named “Screeenshot(number).png” where the number is generated serially depending upon how many screenshots you have taken like Screeenshot(1).png, Screeenshot(2).png, Screeenshot(3).png ……..
Note: dell will store the screenshot in the Pictures folder (screenshots subfolder) , find it in C:\Users\[YOUR NAME]\Pictures\Screenshots
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Applicable to : OS Windows XP and Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. Dell laptop, Dell Computer, hp laptop, asus notebook and all other brands
To take a quick screenshot of the active window, use the keyboard shortcut Alt + PrtScn.
Open the window that you want to capture and press Alt + PrtScn on your keyboard.
Windows automatically captures a screenshot of the active window and copies it to the clipboard
Remember that Windows do not save the screenshot to any file but copies it to memory of computer.
Now you can open open an image editing tool like Microsoft Paint), and press CTRL + V keys to paste the screenshot into the editor. Now you do some basic editing (if needed) and then save the image file to local drive in any format like BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PNG.
Alternatively you can also open any other application like PowerPoint, MSWord or even chat software’s like WhatsApp, Snapchat and directly paste the screenshot using CTRL + V key combination.
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If you want to capture your entire screen and share it across social network, use the Windows Key ⊞ + H keyboard shortcut.
Windows will capture your entire screen and automatically open the Windows Share toolbar to allow immediate sharing of snapshot over social networks with your friends via email, Facebook, Twitter, OneNote, etc.
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On Microsoft Surface or Surface Pro tablet, or an ASUS Vivotab or a Dell Venue tablets there is no PrtScn key on the Type Cover!
Don’t worry there are multiple ways available to take screenshot, using physical keys like smartphones or using keyboard hotkey combinations to get the work done. Let’s look at both the methods –
Applicable to : Windows 8, 8.1 and 10
If you are using a Windows Surface device, and want to capture entire screen, hold down the Windows Logo touch button at the bottom of your Surface screen and hit the physical volume-down button on the side of the tablet.
Your screen will briefly go dim just to indicate that windows has captured a screenshot, and the entire screen image screenshot will be automatically saved to the Pictures > Screenshots folder.
This process of using physical buttons is exactly similar to take screenshot on your smartphone or tablet 🙂
If you are using Microsoft Surface or Surface Pro tablet, or an ASUS Vivotab or a Dell Venue tablets with Windows 10, then you can use the following key combination which is specific to Windows 10 version of Surface-device specific :
| Fn + Spacebar | Captures an image of your current screen to the clipboard, so that you can paste it into any application. (equivalent of the standard PrtScn key) |
| Fn + Alt + Spacebar | Captures a screenshot of the active window, to the clipboard, so that you can paste it into any application. (equivalent of Alt + PrtScn keyboard shortcut) |
Applicable to : Dell laptop, Dell Computer, hp laptop and all other brands
Again one more legacy tool given by Windows since ages!
Windows built-in Snipping Tool can be used for Complete screen capture, partial window capture or even free form and window capture.
You can find this tool in
Start > All Programs > Windows Accessories > Snipping Tool.
To know more ways on locating Snipping tool on your computer, go-to reference section in this post (Jump to Topic)
See the image below showing different options available with the Snipping tool.
Step-by-Step approach to take a screenshot
1) Open the Snipping tool
2) Click New to get options or begin the screenshot process. By default windows will take a rectangular shaped snip, which means you can use your mouse to drag and draw a rectangular part of your screen for capture.
2.1) If you want shape selection other than rectangle, then windows provide you other options like free-form, window, and full-screen snips (refer to image above showing the options)
3) Leave the mouse button and you will see the capture in Snipping tool window.
4) Manually save the screen capture to local drive in any format such as PNG, GIF, JPG, MHT.
4.1) Alternatively you can directly paste the screenshot using CTRL + V keys to applications like MS Paint, PowerPoint, Word, Excel or directly to any social share apps.
If you want to know what it the timer used for in snipping tool, you can select delay timer between 1–5 seconds.
This delay is extremely useful when you wish to capture a pop-up menu or tooltip, so till the time capture activates, open the tooltip or pop-up and automatically after the set time is elapsed, the screen will freeze and fade out so that you can create your snip, OR you can also choose, full-screen, and it will just capture the snip immediately.
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This method is applicable only for Windows 10,
Press Windows Key ⊞ + Shift + S to capture a region of your screen and copy it to your clipboard.
Once you press Windows Key ⊞ + Shift + S, the screen is dimmed, and you will see a cursor, now simply use your mouse to draw on the screen the region that you want to capture in a screenshot, and release the mouse cursor.
The screenshot is saved to the clipboard.
Now you can open Paint or Powerpoint or any other application, where you can paste it using CTRL + V.
Info : This feature was originally part of OneNote 2016 but has been added to Windows 10 itself.
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Applicable to : Windows XP, Vista, and 7, dell computer
Notes specially for dell keyboards:
Al the methods described in this post will work perfectly well on desktop PCs with Windows or on Windows devices with a standard keyboard.
However, specially on laptops or convertible device with a Fn key, the PrtScn key will have multiple functions to do.
Hence if you just press the PrtScn (Print Screen) key, it will not take screen shot!
So follow the following keyboard shortcut guide, if you have Function (Fn) key on your laptop – applicable to Dell, hp laptops
| Fn + PrtScn | – Takes a screenshot of the whole screen – Copies it to the clipboard |
| Fn + Windows + PrtScn | – Takes a screenshot of the whole screen – Saves it as a file on the hard drive. |
| Fn + Alt + PrtScn | – Takes a screenshot of the active window. |
If you are a gaming freak and want to capture screenshot while playing the game, then you can use Windows ⊞+ Alt + PrtScn keys to automatically create screenshot of an active gaming window. System will automatically generate a screen capture and store on your Windows 10 computer or device.
The screenshot will be saved in your Videos library, in the Captures folder, good thing is that, the filename will include the name of the game that you are playing and the date and time when the screenshot was taken 🙂
Note : This feature will work only if you have Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft has introduced a new Game Bar that can be used when playing games of all kinds specially for gamers. This Game bar allows taking screenshots.
A popup window named GameBar will be opened, with above key combination. With this app, you can easily take full-screen shoots. But this system only works on windows 10 latest version.
Step 1: Open App or Game you Want to Take Screenshot Of
Step 2: Open Game Bar ( Windows ⊞ + G )
Step 3: Take Screenshot
Step 4: View Screenshot Xbox app > Game DVR > On this PC
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Windows 8 introduced Charms concept, which is taken further in the Windows 8.1 version which can be used to take and share screenshots.
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Update as on Sept 2018 – Microsoft has decided to discontinue development of Snip, and on May 1, 2018 the app will stop working ( Source )
Snip Editor, was a tool developed under the Microsoft Garage project.
This surely worked a little better than the Snipping Tool allowing you to take screenshots of the entire screen, an active window, or a manually-cropped rectangle.
The Snip app also featured different ways to annotate screenshots, including a free-hand pen option and voice recording. It also had an option to delay screenshots by up to 5 seconds, facilitating grabbing the disappearing menus and tooltips.
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Applicable to Dell Venue 8 Pro, 11 Pro tablet with Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1
Now if you own a Dell Windows tablet computer, then simply press the
Windows ⊞ button + volume down (-) button
on your tablet simultaneously to take a screenshot. The screen will dim for a second with an audible notification to indicate the screenshot was taken.
dell will store the screenshot in the Pictures folder (screenshots subfolder) , find it in C:\Users\[YOUR NAME]\Pictures\Screenshots
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Step-by-Step Guide
1) Press the Power + Volume Up buttons simultaneously.
Note : See the image above, these buttons are located on the top side of your Surface Go.
2) Leaving the buttons should darken the screen briefly to confirm that a screenshot has taken and copied to the clipboard.
3) Now you can open any app where you want to paste this screenshot image.
4) Long press on the touch screen of Surface Go where you want to save your screenshot and Select Paste.
Done.
Step-by-Step Guide
1) Locate the “PrtScn” key on your keyboard top (refer to image above showing keyboard)
Note : Ensure that the “Fn” key toggle is set to OFF.
2) Press “PrtScn” key when the required screen is active, and the screenshot is added to the clipboard.
Note : In the background sign in to OneDrive, and your screenshot will be automatically added to the pictures folder (JPG version)
3) Open any app where you want to paste the screenshot, and press CTRL+V to paste the screenshot.
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Latest update of Windows 10 you can use the following for taking a screenshot –
The new tool in Windows 10 Version 1809, allows you to capture a rectangle, a freeform area, or take a full screenshot, and copy it directly to the clipboard.
When you take a snip, you can directly go to the Screen Sketch app to edit, annotate and share screenshot on social media.
However in this update, traditional tools available in the Snipping Tool (Delay, Window snip, and ink color, etc) are missing !
1) Press Windows Key ⊞ + Shift + S to take a screenshot and copy it to your clipboard OR click on the pen tail button (if you have a pen).
2) A snipping toobar will open, allowing you to select to snip in a rectangle, freeform, or full screen.
3) You can now take a snip using any of the desired tool.
4) You will see a notification pop-up, informing “Snip saved to Clipboard” – “Tap to annotate and share snip”
5) Now you can open Paint or Powerpoint or any other application, where you can paste it using CTRL + V.
1) Open Windows ⊞ Start.
2) Search for Snip and Sketch application, tap to open the app.
3) Tap the New button in the upper left corner.
4) Select the kind of snip you need to use, including a rectangular, freeform, and fullscreen clip
5) Take the screenshot.
1) Open Action Center using the “Windows ⊞ key + A” keyboard shortcut
2) Tap the Expand button >> Tap the Screen Snip button.
3) Now select the kind of snip you need to use, including a rectangular, freeform, and fullscreen clip
4) Take the screenshot.
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Applicable to Windows 10
While you use Microsoft Edge for browsing experience on Windows 10, it also facilitates taking screenshots of any web page you are viewing using a simple Add notes button.
Lets learn how to do it Step-by-Step:
1) Open Microsoft Edge browser >> Load the website
2) You will see “Add Notes” button on the top right side of toolbar >> Click on it >> Click the Save button >> Select OneNote >> Click the Save button OR click the Share button to share the image with other people through email or social media.
Tip: Similar to Snip & Sketch, using Add Notes you can annotate the image, add notes, crop too.
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First thing to do is to check which Windows version your desktop PC or laptop is loaded with … So that you know which printscreen shortcuts to be used and looked for.
So to find out which version of Windows your PC is running, Windows 10 or windows 7 or any other do the following
1) press Windows logo key + R ,
2) type winver, then select OK.
– Get into Start Menu > Select All apps, choose Windows Accessories and tap Snipping Tool.
– Type snip in the search box on taskbar, and click Snipping Tool in the result.
– Display Run using Windows+R, input snippingtool and hit OK.
– Launch Command Prompt, type snippingtool.exe and press Enter.
Alternate way to find snipping tool in windows is to use File Explorer > navigate to “C:\Windows\System32” and then double-click or tap on the executable file called SnippingTool.exe.
Download Screenshot Snipping Tool from Microsoft Official website – Snipping tool download here (applicable for Windows 10 version 10586.0 or higher)
Microsoft snipping tool download for windows 7 – Please note that Windows 7 Starter kit does not include a Snipping Tool, however Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate Windows 7 versions have Snipping Tool.
Microsoft snipping tool download for windows XP – The Windows 7 Snipping Tool is not available for XP.
Try to locate the “Print Screen” key on your laptop or desktop keyboard, remember that depending upon the manufacturer such as dell, hp, lenovo, acer, asus etc this key may be written as PrintScreen, PrntScrn, PrntScr, PrtScn, PrtScr, PrtSc or a similar abbreviation
However in case you still are not able to find the Print Screen key separately, then don’t worry.
Simply use Fn + Insert keys simultaneously to take a screenshot.
Windows is the most widely used OS in world.
It is so famous because of its intuitive interface, simple copy past operations, drag drop of files makes it user easy to use for a non trained person too.
Since it is widely used on Desktop PCs and Laptops, people using it daily do need to generate screenshots for personal use, official use, social sharing or any other reasons for keeping a record of transactions etc. In fact I use it quite extensively for writing my blog too.
So obviously not everyone is aware of technique of generating screenshots, hence you will see multiple queries floating across web like “how to take a screenshot on windows” or “how to screenshot on hp or dell laptops” – Now point to be noted here is that be it a dell laptop or hp laptop, the method of taking screenshot remains the same as described above in this post.
Well even it might be that you want to know where is the print screen button located?
So in this post I have tried to cover all the known methods which works perfectly on various versions of Windows OS such as Windows 7, 8, XP, Windows 10 on desktop PCs, laptops or Windows Surface devices (tablets).
Above guide is also applicable to dell latitude, dell inspiron 15,
Hope this helps!
Cheers!!
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View Comments
This needs updating to cover Windows 10 Version 1809 Snip Bar e.g. Windows button + S (shift s)
Thank you very much, the post has been updated with latest Windows 10 Version 1809 Snip Bar
Wow all these years and I didn't know about this snippet tool. Thanks for giving me exactly what I was looking for that was under my nose and at no extra cost.