If you need to capture some information on your computer screen and store it for later use, taking a screenshot is one of the best options. Whether it’s your favorite meme on Twitter or physics notes from your online class, taking a screenshot can often come in handy. If you are new to Windows or you are planning to buy a Windows laptop or PC, or maybe treat yourself to a gaming laptop, then we are going to tell you some of the easiest ways you can take a screenshot on Windows, and these methods will be applicable on Windows 11 also. If you’re using a Mac instead of a Windows PC, here’s how to take screenshots on macOS.
There are several ways you can take screenshots on Windows. Some of these tools are built-in and can be used right out of the box, while some may require the installation of third-party software. We will go through these methods and tell you the different use cases where you can use these different methods to take a screenshot.
Take a screenshot on Windows with Print Screen
This is the simplest and most effective way to take screenshots on Windows, since it does not include any third-party application and is a built-in functionality in Windows. All you need is to press a key and your screen will be captured. To take screenshots with Print Screen, follow these steps:
- Locate the Print Screen key on your keyboard with text PrtScn – or something else along those lines – is included in it. It is usually located in the upper-right corner of the keyboard, near the function keys.
- On the screen you want to take a screenshot of, tap PrtScn a key. Some keyboards may have a dedicated button for this while others may need to press the function key to access it PrtScn. If so, just press and hold National Front on the keyboard, then press PrtScn a key.
- Your screen is now captured and copied to the clipboard. You can paste the screenshot on any window you want by pressing Ctrl + V. You can paste the screenshot on the Paint app, for example, make further edits and save the file.
Alternatively, if you want to take a screenshot and store it on your PC or laptop, instead of copying it to the clipboard to paste it somewhere else, there’s a little difference in this shortcut:
- Instead of pressing a file PrtScn key, press windows key and PrtScn key together.
- Your screenshot will be stored in This PC / Pictures / Screenshots.
Take a screenshot on Windows with Xbox Game Bar
If you are a gamer, we are sure that you are familiar with a tool called Xbox Game Bar that comes pre-installed on Windows. This overlay allows you to quickly access Xbox social features, resize each app, see system resource usage, and most importantly – take screenshots of an app or game. This is how you can take screenshots with the Xbox Game Bar:
- Launch the Xbox Game Bar by pressing Windows + G keys on the keyboard. You will see an overlay with many popups on your screen.
- In the upper-right corner (by default), you’ll see a file Yasir window, and there, you can click the camera icon to take a screenshot of your currently open app.
- The Xbox app is not designed to capture the entire desktop, so the taskbar will not be included in the screenshot.
Screenshots taken with the Xbox Game Bar are saved to a file Videos A library on your computer, inside a folder called Pick up. In addition to taking screenshots, the Xbox Game Bar can also record your screen, although the same restrictions apply. We have an article on how to record your screen if you’d like to learn more about it.
If you want something more advanced so you can take a screenshot of a specific app or an area of the screen, Windows also has a snipping tool. This is a tool that has been around for a long time, but has recently been updated with a more modern design and some new features. In Windows 10, you might have something called Snip and Sketch, which basically does the same things. Here’s how to use the snipping tool to take a screenshot on Windows 11.
- Open the start menu and start typing clipping toolor click All apps button and look for it there.
- Once you open the app, select File new The button in the upper left corner to take a screenshot. You can also find here actions that capture the screen after three seconds or ten seconds. You can also choose whether you want to use rectangle mode, window mode, full screen mode, or freeform mode.
Rectangle mode and Freeform mode allow you to manually select the area to capture. Windows mode captures the window you select, and full screen mode will automatically capture your entire screen, including multiple screens.
- Once you click New, the screen capture tool will launch in your chosen mode. However, you can still change it using the toolbar at the top. Select the area or window you want to capture, and it will be captured instantly.
- The Snipping Tool will then open with the screenshot you took, giving you options to crop or draw on the image. You can use the buttons in the upper right corner to either save the image or copy it to the clipboard so you can share it somewhere else. In newer versions of Snipping Tool, screenshots can be saved to a file shots folder in your Pictures Library.
If you want to be faster, you can press windows + Transformation + s To immediately launch the Snipping Tool capture interface. This will skip the main application window so you can take a screenshot right away, although you can still change the capture mode beforehand. In this case, the Snipping Tool window won’t open automatically after you take a screenshot, but you’ll get a notification that you can click if you want to make edits and save the image.
If you want to make this faster, you can open the Settings app and go to File Accessibility then scroll down until you find an option called Use the print screen button to open the screenshot. If you enable this, the Print Screen key will launch the Snipping Tool instead of taking a normal screenshot.
Take a screenshot on Windows with PicPick
picnic It is a third-party application that provides a large variety of screen capture options along with some other tools that can come in handy for you. You get options such as taking screenshots of scrollable windows, screenshots of specific colors on the screen, or even measuring the dimensions of objects in the screenshot with an on-screen ruler. Here’s how you can use picnic And take better screenshots:
- Download picnic on your Windows computer. It is free for personal use.
- Install the app after downloading and opening it picnic. The user interface is very simple, so choose the option you want.
- Once you have taken the screenshot with your preferred option, you can modify it to your liking.
- You can also share the screenshot after editing directly from the app itself without having to save it.
These are some of the best and simplest ways you can take a screenshot on Windows. Of course, taking a screenshot on an Android smartphone is much easier, but with these tools, you will soon be able to take screenshots on your PC and even edit them without any difficulty. While some of these methods are convenient and only require pressing a button, others provide more options for editing and sharing screenshots.
Featured image made with icon made by Freepik From www.flaticon.com
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