This list will include methods that come built into your Windows PC. You might know some of methods, and you might not have heard of others. We’ll also include keyboard shortcuts and third-party apps.
Heads up, some of these tips will only work on Windows 10 and the newer Windows 11. Others will work for older versions of Windows. So let’s dive right in.
Print Screen Key method
The most popular way of taking screenshots on a Windows PC is by simply pressing the print screen key.
But there’s a catch. Simply pressing the print screen key might not seem to do anything, but it does. It takes a screenshot of the entire screen. Even still, you might not know how to locate the saved screenshot after it has been taken.
The full-screen screenshot your PC takes when you press the print screen key isn’t automatically saved anywhere. Instead, it goes to your computer’s clipboard.
Pasting and saving screenshots taken using the print screen key
To view the screenshot that your PC takes when you press the print screen button, you have to open any image editing app on your PC and then paste the picture.
If you don’t know what an image editing app is, don’t worry. Your Windows PC comes with the Microsoft Paint app. Microsoft Paint is an image editing app.
Click on the Windows key, and search for “paint.” The Paint app will come up, and you can then proceed to open the app and paste the screenshot.
To paste the screenshot on the paint app, right-click and select “Paste.” You can also use a keyboard shortcut by simultaneously pressing the “Ctrl” and “V” (Ctrl+V) keys.
Once the picture loads, you can save the screenshot to any folder. To save, simultaneously press the and keys on your keyboard and save to any folde
There is an alternative to pressing the print screen button alone: “Alt + PrtSc keys.” Pressing the keys saves a picture of your currently active window (not the entire screen) to the clipboard. Then you can paste the screenshot to an image editing app
But if you find all of this to be a hassle, there is a better alternative to these method
Windows+ Print Screen Key meth
To take a full-screen capture and automatically save it to a folder, you can simultaneously press the Windows key and the print screen key. When you press the “Windows” and keys together, your screen darkens, and it takes a screenshot of your entire screen
However, unlike when you press the PrtSc key, you don’t need to paste the screenshot in an image editor app. Instead, the screenshot saves itself in the “Screenshots” folder as a png image file. You can find the Screenshots folder with automatically labeled images in the Pictures folder of your PC..ods..Scr.
If you’re using Windows 11, the picture doesn’t just save to the screenshots folder. It also copies the picture. So you can still paste it to an image editing app or apps that have image support.
Fun fact: Instagram and Facebook are both apps with image support. So, if you want, you can paste the screenshot directly to both apps.
PrtSc key + OneDrive method
To automatically save your screen captures to the cloud, you can combine the PrtSc key with OneDrive. This method automatically saves the screenshot to a OneDrive folder. That way, you don’t have to open an app to paste the screenshot. And you have a backup that is accessible wherever you go.
To begin, right-click on the OneDrive icon by the taskbar. Click on “Settings,” then click on “Backup.” Then tick the tab that says, “Automatically save screenshots I capture to OneDrive.”
After that, every time you take a screenshot using the print screen (PrtSc) key, it is automatically saved to OneDrive. You can access the saved screenshots on any device as long as you can log in to your OneDrive account. Now, you don’t have to copy screenshots before accessing them on other devices.
Screenshots saved to OneDrive are also accessible from the clipboard.
Using the Snipping Tool App
Snipping tool for screenshots on windows
If you do not want to take a fullscreen screenshot, you can always use the Snipping Tool. The Snipping Tool was first released in 2005. Seventeen years later, it continues to be a fantastic screenshot tool on Windows computers. While a newer version of the Snipping Tool exists (more on that later), we had to include the original.
Unlike the fullscreen screenshots you take with the Print Screen button, the Snipping Tool allows you to take snippets of any portion of the active window on your screen.
For instance, you can take screenshots that look like this:
A screenshot of the BGR homepage, taken with the snipping tool
To use the Snipping Tool on whatever version of Windows you have (Windows Vista or later), press the Windows key on your laptop. Or, move your mouse to the Windows icon on your taskbar on an older Windows PC and search for “Snipping Tool.”
When the Snipping Tool comes up, click on the “New” button.
After that, click and hold on to the starting point of your screenshot, and drag your mouse cursor to cover the part of the active window that you want to screenshot. Let go when you’re done, and the screenshot you just took will appear in the Snipping Tool tab. Next, press the “Ctrl” and “S” keys on your keyboard (Ctrl + S), and save the screenshot to a folder hot to a folder.
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