Over the decades and across different operating systems, there have been various methods, software, and key combinations to capture your screen (or just part of it) and save the image. Knowing how to do this effectively can save you some time and effort when trying to share with others. In this tutorial, we’ll cover several different methods using Windows 10 version 1809 (OS Build 17763.437).
Print Screen
1. Press the Print Screen button on your keyboard. This action places the image on the clipboard and is ready to be pasted into the application. Note that this method does not automatically save the file. If you have multiple monitors, it will capture the image on all screens.
2.Just open Paint, right-click in an open area and press paste (or CTRL+V). The saved image should now be visible on the screen. After capturing the screen(s), you can use any number of image pasting programs, including Paint, Paint 3D, Snip, and Sketch, as well as third-party applications such as Photoshop, Paint.NET, etc. In this case, we will use MS Paint.
3. Click the Save button or useFile->Save As to save the image to a location of your choice. Name your file something you’ll remember and save it to an appropriate location on your computer.
Alt + Print Screen
If you have an open multiple windows and you only want the active/focused window captured, an alternative method is to hold down the Alt key and then press Print Screen.
1. While holding down the alt key, press the Print Screen button on your keyboard. This will only capture the focused/active window (the window “on top”). This places the image on the clipboard, ready to be pasted to the application.Обратите внимание, что этот метод также не ’t automatically save the file.
2. Just like with the previous method above, you can then use several Windows or third-party applications to paste and save your captured file.
3. Press the save button or use File>Save As and save the image to a location of your choice. Name your file something easy to remember.
4. Press the Save button. The Save As dialog box will appear, allowing you to save the image to the location of your choice.
Windows Key + Print Screen
Another way, similar to the one described above, is to use the Windows key + Print Screen button. The difference with this method is that the screenshot will be automatically saved to a specific location on the computer. 1. While holding down the Windows key, press the Print Screen button on your keyboard. This will capture your entire screen and save it automatically, the screen will go dark for a fraction of a second to let you know the process worked. This places the image on the clipboard and also saves it in the Pictures>Screenshots folder. Please note that if you have multiple monitors, the image will be captured on all screens.
2. Then open File Explorer and navigate to the “Pictures and Screenshots” folder to navigate to the file you just saved. You can then open, move, or rename the captured image.
Snipping Tool
Another way to capture screenshots is with Windows Snipping tool.This piece of software allows you to customize how the screen is captured, giving users four options. There are freeform, rectangular, window, and fullscreen snip options that should suit everyone’s needs if other methods aren’t what you’re looking for.
1. Open the Snipping Tool application by typing the name of the application in the search bar and pressing Enter to open it. There are some ways to do this.
2. Click on the mode function on the toolbar to open a list of options. Choose which option suits your purpose. This allows you to choose how you would like to capture your screen(s). In this case, I chose a free-form snippet to capture my image.
3. Once your method is selected, the screen will change to matte transparent. Cut as needed in any way you choose. Below is an example of a freeform snippet on the Tom’s hardware homepage.
4. Click on File, then go to Save As in order to save your image. The / Save As dialog box will appear, then save the file to the location of your choice.
Snip and Sketch tool
The final method is the Snip and Sketch tool. This app appears to be the successor to the basic crop tool in future Windows updates. “It’s a cross between a lightweight application like MS Paint that lets you draw, write, and edit an image along with a capture tool (hence Snip and Sketch!). There’s less flexibility in how it captures an image, but more editing options.
1. Type “Sketch” in the search bar and click on the program to open it, or just press Enter. As with the crop tool above, there are several ways to do this.
2. Click the Create button to take a snapshot. The screen will become darker and allow you to take a picture in the form of a square or rectangle, depending on how you are shaping the picture. Snip and sketch do not allow freehand drawing or other methods.
3. Once the image has been captured, there will be options at the top to edit/draw on the image if you choose. After completing any changes, the image must be saved.
4. Click the save/disk icon in the upper right corner to save the image.This will open a save dialog/window where you can save the file to the location of your choice, although the program uses the images folder by default.
So which method is best? It will depend on your use case. For me, when I capture images it is either my screen n(s) or the active window, so the first two methods work well. If you want versatile capture options, the Windows + Print Screen method should work well. Both the crop tool and Snip and Sketch are a bit more powerful, and along with capturing screenshots, you can further edit the image. The latter application also allows you to write and highlight, and is good for highlighting details in images.
One of these methods should work well for most users and screenshot scenarios. There are more ways than just these methods (including third-party software) to take and edit screenshots, but the methods above are the most common and should be sufficient for the vast majority of Windows 10 screen captures.
