How To Do Screen Shot In Your Computer Window 7,8 & 10

ould spend all day arguing the merits of a good screen-capture utility. They are quick and efficient, often providing a simple way to take a JPG snapshot of an application window or your entire display in a matter of seconds without the need to download any external software.

Perhaps you need to send a screenshot to tech support, email an image to a friend, or, if you’re like us, capture a screenshot for an awesomehow-to guide about how to take a screenshot on a PC!

Luckily, Windows has several built-in features for taking and saving screenshots for whatever reason you might need them, and they’re only a couple of keyboard clicks away. All three methods covered in this guide are free, no hassle, and work fantastically on nearly all machines built in the last decade and beyond. Let’s take a look.

Using the default keyboard shortcuts

Taking a screenshot is simple, regardless of which version of Windows you’re running. There are only a few steps – assuming you haven’t fiddled with the default keyboard controls – and you should already have access to all the image-editing software you need.

Step 1: Capture the image – Assuming the area you want to capture is displayed on your screen, press the Print Screen (often shortened to “Prt Sc”) key, typically located in the upper right corner of your keyboard, to capture a screenshot of your entire display. Alternatively, press Alt + Print Screen to merely capture a screenshot of the active window.

There will be no noise or any other indication the screenshot was taken, but the resulting image will be saved as a PNG file to your clipboard. If using Windows 8 or Windows 10, simply click the Windows Key + Print Screen to automatically save a full-screen screenshot within the Screenshots folder of your picture directory.

Step 2: Open Paint: Click the Start menu, navigate to the Windows Accessories folder — or the Accessories folder, if using Windows 7 — and click Paint. The icon depicts a painting palette with a brush on the right side, but it will vary slightly depending on your operating system.

In Windows 8, press the Windows key to open the start screen. Afterward, click the down arrow in the bottom left, press Ctrl + Tab, or swipe downward from the center of the display to access the Apps View. From there, select Paint.

In Windows 10, you can open the Start menu, go to All Apps, and scroll through the alphabetical list until you find paint. All three versions also include Windows Search, which can be used to find Paint by searching for — you guessed it — Paint!

Step 3: Paste the screenshot: Once open, click the Paste button in the upper-left corner of the program, chooseEdit then Paste, or press Ctrl + V on the keyboard to paste your screenshot. Again, the exact navigation and wordage will vary slightly from OS to OS, but the keyboard shortcut will remain the same.

Step 4: Save the screenshot: Perform any edits you want, such as cropping the image to a specified area, and click the main File option in the top-left corner. Afterward, select Save as, title the new file, choose a save location, and select your desired file format from the drop-down menu. For most purposes, JPG will do fine, but a variety of other formats are available to choose from such as PNG, BMP, GIF, and others. Click the gray Save button in the bottom right-hand corner when finished.

USING ONEDRIVE IN WINDOWS 10

If you’re running Windows 10, you’ve got another option for taking and storing screenshots: OneDrive. Microsoft’s cloud file storage service, once opened, will ask you if you’d like to automaitcally save your screenshots to the cloud every time you hit the Print Screen key. From there, you can easily the screenshots by copying a link. Here’s how that works.

Step 1: Open OneDrive: If you haven’t yet, go ahead and launch OneDrive on your Windows 10 computer. You can find this free application, which comes with Windows 10, in the Start menu under All Apps, or by searching with Cortana. If you’ve already set up One Drive, the folder should open in Windows Explorer. If not, you’ll be prompted to log in with your Microsoft Account — simply follow the on-screen instructions. You’ve now got OneDrive running on your Windows 10 computer.

Step 2: Press the Print Screen key: Press the Print Screen key, as explained in the top section of this article, and you should see a prompt from OneDrive asking if you’d like to save your screenshots to OneDrive. Go ahead and confirm, and from now on, a PNG of your screenshot will be saved to OneDrive every time you press Print Screen. This also works for Alt + Print Screen, which takes a screenshot of the active window instead of the entire desktop. Your computer will make no sound or other indication when you take a screenshot, but the photos will automatically be saved to OneNote.

If no message pops up when you press Print Screen, you can enable this feature manually. Right-click the OneDrive icon in your system tray, which is located just left of the clock in the taskbar. You may need to click the arrow icon to find this icon. When you find the cloud icon, right-click it and select Settings. Then, click the Auto save tab and make sure Automatically save screenshots I capture to OneDrive is enabled (as shown above).

Step 3: Find and share the files: Launch OneDrive from the Start menu and open the Pictures folder. Inside, you’ll find the Screenshots folder, which will contain all of the screenshots you’ve previously taken. You can grab these files and move them to any folder you like, or edit them with your image editor of choice. You can also share them with friends by copying the appropriate link — simply right-click the file and select Share a OneDrive link. A URL for sharing the screenshot with a friend will automatically be copied to your clipboard, which yo can then paste into any email or chat message.

USING THE SNIPPING TOOL

The built-in screen capture utility in Windows works well enough, but it’s not the most robust or versatile when it comes to saving a snapshot of your screen. The Snipping Tool is another built-in Windows utility that allows users to better define and capture portions of their desktop display as a screenshot. Aside from taking a screenshot of the entire screen and active window, the tool allows free-form outlines and rectangular screenshots for a more adjustable selection, as well as built-in annotation and sharing options.

Step 1: Open the Snipping Tool: Click the Start menu, navigate to the Windows Accessoriesfolder — or the Accessories folder, if using Windows 7 — and select Snipping Tool from the list of native Microsoft software. The icon depicts a pair of blue scissors with two white ovals beneath. Alternatively, search and open the program from the Windows search bar. If using Windows 8, click the down arrow in the bottom-left corner, press Ctrl + Tab, or swipe downward from the center of the display to access the Apps View. From there, select the Snipping Tool.

Step 2: Choose the snip type: Once open, click the down arrow to the right of New in the upper-left corner of the program window and select your desired snipping type from the list of drop-down options. The free-form snip allows you to draw irregular shapes, the rectangular snip specified-sized rectangles, the window snip the active window, and the full-screen snip the entire screen.

Step 3: Define the selection: Use your mouse or trackpad to manually define your screen-capture selection. Obviously, the full-screen snip and window-snip don’t provide a ton of leeway in terms of versatility and selection choice, but the latter will still require you to choose the appropriate window before continuing.

Step 4: Save the screenshot: Perform any edits you want, such as highlights or annotations, and click the main File option in the top-left corner. Afterward, select Save As, title the new file, choose a save location, and select your desired file format from the drop-down menu. If your screenshot includes text, you’ll notice increased clarity if you save the file as a PNG, but you can check out our guide to different image formats to help you choose the best one for each scenario. If you prefer, you can click the envelope icon to directly email the screenshot as an attachment. Click the graySave button in the bottom-right corner when finished.

USING PICPICK

There are countless screenshot utilities, both free and premium, floating around on the Web. The bulk of them provide a healthy dose of customization and versatility that exceed Window’s innate screen-capture capabilities by leaps and bounds while maintaining the free-to-use price tag and light footprint. With hotkeys out the wazoo, and a steady stream of editing tools to help polish and refine your screenshot to suit your fancy, all-in-one design tool PicPick is one of the best available. It’s free, available for Windows XP onward, and offers a more comprehensive feature-set than the options we outlined above.

Step 1: Download and install PicPick: Click the blue Download button on the left side of the PicPick homepage, and again on the resulting page, to obtain the freemium software. Install the application once it downloads. The simple setup wizard will walk you through the entire installation process, installing the files and creating a desktop shortcut, but be on the lookout for any toolbars or potential malware that may come bundled with the program.

Step 2: Open PicPick: Click the Start menu, head to All Apps, and select PicPick. The icon depicts a painting palette similar to the Microsoft Paint icon, sans the brush. Alternatively, search and open the program from the Windows search bar. If using Windows 8, press the Windows key to open the start screen. Afterward, click the down arrow in the bottom left, press Ctrl + Tab, or swipe downward from the center of the display to access the Apps View. From there, select PicPick.

Step 3: Choose the selection type: Once opened, choose the selection type from the list housed in the Screen Capture section in the bottom-left corner of the main program window. Like the Snipping tool, there are options for free-form, rectangular, window, and full-screen screenshots, as well as a fix-region and scrolling window options for greater control when capturing elongated images.

Step 4: Define the selection: Use your mouse or trackpad to manually define your screen-capture selection. Obviously, the full-screen snip and window-snip don’t provide a lot of leeway in terms of versatility and selection choice, but the latter will still require you to choose the appropriate window before continuing.

Step 5: Save the screenshot: Perform any edits you want, such as cropping and filter overlays, and click the main File option in the top-left corner. Afterward, select Save As, title the new file, choose a save location, and select your desired file format from the drop-down menu. For most purposes, JPG will do fine, but a variety of other formats are available to choose from such as PNG, GIF, or PDF. If you prefer, you can click the cloud icon to directly email the screenshot as an attachment or upload it to Twitter, among other actions. Click the gray Save button in the bottom-right corner when finished.

This article was originally published on July 31, 2014, and updated on March 3, 2016, by Justin Pot, to include new instructions for Windows 10 and outline OneDrive’s screenshot tool. 

Source: Digital Trends

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