Technical Level : Basic
Summary
This article is now longer being maintained. I refer to Take screenshot- TenForumsTutorials when I need guidance
Windows 10 provides several ways of capturing screen contents.
1 The PrntScrn key [All Windows versions] - this inappropriately-named key captures the current screen or window to the clipboard.
2 Win-Shift-S [Windows 10 Ver 1703] - this captures a user-selectable area of the screen to the clipboard
3 The Snipping Tool [Windows 7 onwards] - this captures a user-selectable area of the screen and allows it to be saved as a graphics file
4 Screenshots [Windows 10] - this captures the whole screen as a graphics file
Denis
Details
1 The PrntScrn key
1.1 This inappropriately-named key captures the current screen or window to the clipboard from where it can be pasted into a graphics-capable application such as MS Paint or MS Word. The PrintScreen key has retained its pre-Windows 95 name [it used to be a printing control button] but it no longer has anything to do with printing.
1.2 In Windows 10, you can press
- the PrntScrn key** to capture an image of the whole screen,
[including any visible Screentips and any visible right-click context menu]
- the Ctrl-PrntScrn** key combination to capture an image of the whole screen,
[including any visible right-click context menu]
- the Alt-PrntScrn** key combination to capture an image of the active window.
[without either]
** If your keyboard's PrntScrn key has two jobs then you may need to press the Fn key as well -> Fn-PrntScrn. The keyboard maker might have indicated this by labelling PrntScrn in blue and the Fn key in blue but if there is any doubt your computer manual ought to explain this.
1.3 The captured image can be retrieved from the clipboard by pasting [by, for example, pressing ctrl-v] into a graphics-capable application such as MS Paint or MS Word.
1.4 If captured screen images are black or dark grey while you are using online banking, you probably have the security utility Trusteer Rapport installed - it deliberately inhibits capturing screenshots of its protected sites. This behaviour may be overridden in Rapport Advanced policy settings without completely disabling Trusteer Rapport - search their support site for details.
1.5 In Windows 7, some online games refused to run properly after PrntScrn was used unless the application's shortcut was altered [Properties, Compatibility tab, Disable desktop composition] but this setting does not exist in Windows 10. Whilst a workaround has been posted in this forum [Issue 5], better guidance might exist in publishers' support sites & user forums for any games that suffer from this affliction.
2 Win-Shift-S
2.1 This key combination in Windows 10 Ver 1703 captures a user-selectable area of the screen to the clipboard from where it can be pasted into a graphics-capable application such as MS Paint or MS Word.
2.2 To use this function in Windows 10 Ver 1703, press the key combination Win-Shift-S. The screen greys out and allows you to drag your cursor to define a screen area for capture. When you let go of the mouse button, the indicated area is sent to the clipboard.
2.3 Users of OneNote will find that Win-Shift-S affects their OneNote screen clipping function, for which a solution has been posted.
3 The Snipping tool
3.1 This Windows 7, 8, 10 Windows component captures a user-selectable area of the screen and allows it to be saved as a graphics file.
3.2 To use the Snipping tool:-
- Open it at Start menu, Windows accessories, Snipping tool.
- Choose any Mode and Delay that suits your purpose.
- Click on New.
- The screen greys out and allows you to drag your cursor to define a screen area for capture.
- When you let go of the mouse button, the indicated area is sent to the Snipping tool.
- Use its editing tools [pen, highlighter, rubber] as required.
- Then use the Snipping tool's toolbar to save the [edited] picture to a file, copy it to the clipboard or email it.
3.3 Take note of the Snipping tool's Delay facility. This allows you to capture, for example, dialog boxes and other temporary items on display.
- You can set it to delay for up to 5 secs then click New to start the countdown.
- At the appointed moment, the screen will dim and you can drag your cursor to define a screen area for capture.
3.4 There are descriptions of the Snipping tool at
Open Snipping Tool and take a screenshot - WindowsInstantAnswers
and at
Use Snipping Tool to capture screenshots
4 Screenshots
4.1 This Windows 10 function captures the whole screen as a graphics file. If you have a second monitor set up in Extended desktop mode then Screenshots will capture them both.
4.2 Use the key combination** WindowsKey+PrntScrn and it will save a graphics file with the extension .png in your "Screenshots" folder. When this happens, the screen momentarily dims slightly to tell you that you are doing it. The filename used is set automatically - Screenshot (1).png, Screenshot (2).png, ...
** If your PrntScrn key has two jobs then you may need to press the Fn key as well -> Fn-WinKey-PrntScrn. Normally, the keyboard maker will have indicated this by labelling PrntScrn in blue and the Fn key in blue but if there is any doubt your computer manual ought to explain this.
4.3 The Screenshots folder is not created until the first time that you use this key combination. The folder is created at
%UserProfile%\Pictures\Screenshots
[you can paste this entry into the File explorer address bar to get straight to it]. This "user folder" can be relocated as explained below.
4.4 Relocating the Screenshots folder
4.4.1 Right-click on the Screenshots folder, select Properties & select the Location tab then you can relocate it to another folder if you want to.
4.4.2 A dialog box appears and it asks whether or not you want to move the contents of the current Screenshots folder to the new location. If you choose to do so then the original folder is removed in the process. If you choose not to move its existing contents then they and the existing Screenshots folder itself remain where they are but they no longer have any significance to the system - new screenshots will be sent to the new location.
4.4.3 I normally have mine set to dump the screenshots on my Desktop because that is my general clearing house for work in progress. So, I entered D:\Desktop [%UserProfile%\Desktop] as my new location.
4.4.4 Because I have chosen to use a folder that is itself a "user folder", Windows will not help me to relocate it again [it cannot cope with multiple "user folders" being set to the same folder path].
4.4.5 Had I chosen to relocate it to D:\Desktop\Dumps or any other unique folder then I could change my mind later on and repeat this procedure to relocate it again.
4.4.6 Despite this, I can still change my mind and relocate the Screenshots folder path using RegEdit, the Registry Editor [C:\Windows\System32\regedt32.exe]. I would always back up the relevant Registry key before changing it.
The relevant Registry key is
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
[which I could get to in Windows 10 Ver 1703 by pasting that address in RegEdit's address bar]
within which the relevant Value name is
{B7BEDE81-DF94-4682-A7D8-57A52620B86F}
so I could double-click on this Value name then enter the new folder I wanted to use for Screenshots.
The change would take effect immediately, you would not need to restart the computer.
5 Posting screen contents in this forum
If you then want to include a screen capture in a post in this forum, click on the picture icon in the editing toolbar that is shown while you are writing a post.
Do check the contents of the picture before & after posting it -
1 Check that no sensitive information [such as your email address] is included.
2 Check that the picture shows the point[s] you want to make clearly enough. Add an explanation of what you want readers to notice. This advice about a particular screenshot illustrates several general considerations How [best] to post a screenshot of Disk Management - TenForums such as resizing columns to show the relevant data.
3 Crop the picture to remove irrelevant parts of it & to ease viewing it.
- Use your normal graphics editor - they all have Cropping capability. In MS Paint, for example, you click on the Select tool in the toolbar, drag your cursor to include everything you want included then click on Crop.
- Try to match the width of forum posts so that your posted picture is the same size as your original.
- Check that the details you want to show are large enough to be read properly [an uncropped screenshot of an entire screen is unlikely to be readable].
- After you post it, look at your posted picture to re-check that the details you want to show really are large enough to be read properly.
Denis
