Microsoft Windows has long had numerous options for taking screenshots, also known as screencaps or screen grabs—perhaps too many. Windows 11 simplifies the situation. Recent updates to the OS have added nifty new tools that let you take screenshots more easily, record video of your screen activity, and run optical character recognition (OCR) on images. Here are seven ways to take a screenshot in Windows 11. 1. Press PrtScn (Print Screen Key) and Paste
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Press the Print Screen key (PrtScn), and an image of the entire screen copies to the clipboard. You then must paste the image into an app that will accept it, such as Microsoft Paint, Paint 3D, or Adobe Photoshop. If you want to capture only the active window and not the full desktop image, add the Alt key, for Alt-PrtScn. Using this keyboard shortcut saves the current window to the clipboard, and from there you must paste it into an imaging application. In Windows 11, the result can be a little strange because the rounded corners are extended to squared-off corners since image files are always rectangular.Note that a Windows update changed the behavior of the Print Screen key: It now opens the Snipping Tool by default. To get back to the behavior described above, go to Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard and switch off the setting “Use the Print screen key to open screen capture.”2. Set Up PrtScn to Automatically Save to OneDrive
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Using the Print Screen (PrtSc) key, you can also automatically create an image file of your screenshot that is saved to OneDrive. I include this method separately from the standard PrtScn option because the result is so different and saves you the extra steps of opening an app, pasting from the clipboard, and saving an image file.To use this method, click or right-click on OneDrive’s cloud icon on the right side of the taskbar. Choose Settings and then the Backup tab of the dialog box and check ‘Save Screenshots I capture to OneDrive.’ That one simple check box changes everything about PrtScn. You no longer have to open an image app or paste it from the clipboard. Instead, an image file in PNG format is automatically created in the OneDrive/username/Pictures/Screenshots folder. The filename uses the current date and time. Right after you take the screenshot, a notification appears; clicking it takes you right to the folder with the file highlighted. You can then access it from any device OneDrive (there are clients for every major platform as well as a web version). I always use this method when I think I may need to use the screenshot as an image file rather than just pasting it somewhere. It’s also handy when I don’t have time to save an image file in a separate step, such as during a live presentation.3. Press Windows Key-PrtScn
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Here’s yet another way to use the PrtScn key: Use the keyboard shortcut Windows Key-PrtScn.Use this option if you want to take screenshots and automatically save them somewhere other than OneDrive. This method causes the screen to dim briefly and places a PNG file in the Pictures > Screenshots folder by default. (Note the different placement of the PrtScn key on the keyboard in the image above.) You can also paste the image anywhere right after using this method since it’s also copied to the clipboard.
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Windows 11 cleans up the previous confusion of how to take a screenshot in Windows by taking all the functionality from Windows 10’s terrific Snip & Sketch tool and rolling it into the newer Snipping Tool. It also adds the ability to record videos of action on the screen.The easiest way to get to the Snipping Tool is to press Windows Key-Shift-S. That keyboard shortcut gives you a choice to take a screenshot using a rectangular snip, freehand selection, window, or full-screen capture (that’s the order of the icons you choose from in the image above). If you change your mind after you press Windows Key-Shift-S and don’t want to take a screenshot, use the Esc key to back out. If you have a Surface Pen stylus, double-tapping its eraser button opens the Snipping Tool.For the first two options, draw with the cursor to select the area you want to capture. For the window option, just click over the target window; the full-screen capture happens as soon as you click on that last button.
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Once you release the cursor, you see a notification in the lower right with a thumbnail image of the screenshot. You can ignore it if you plan to paste the screenshot into another app because the image is already saved to the clipboard. Or you can click the thumbnail to open the Snipping Tool interface (shown below). Here, you can mark up the screenshot with a pen or highlighter, crop the image, or use a ruler to draw straight lines. And a finger button lets you draw on a touch screen.
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You can set the screenshots to save immediately to a folder of your choice. If you don’t want to take up the disk space, you can change it in the Snipping Tool’s Settings, accessible from the app’s three-dot menu at the top right.
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You can save the screenshot and any edits using the disk icon (some visual metaphors never die). A Share button lets you send the image using Windows 11’s standard share panel. You can also print the image or open it in another app from the menu options.One beef I have with this utility’s crop feature is that it doesn’t offer aspect ratio options. I’d like to be able to, for example, choose a 16:9 widescreen size, and I doubt I’m alone in that. As it is now, you have to take the image into Microsoft Paint, Paint 3D, or some other image-editing program to get this simple capability. I also wish the Snipping Tool gave access to previous screenshots as the OneDrive option above and the SnagIt option below do.If you want to use a delay timer before taking a screenshot, simply type Snipping in the Start menu and open the program window, rather than using the keyboard shortcut. In the small menu bar that appears, look for the clock icon and choose to add a delay of 1, 3, 5, or 10 seconds before you take a screenshot.The Snipping Tool now offers optical character recognition (OCR) technology, meaning any words that appear in an image are identified and become searchable. The OCR tool can copy text found in an image and automatically redact info like names, email addresses, and phone numbers. You get to the tool from the text-page icon, shown below.
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Note that the Snipping Tool in Windows 11 can also record video of your screen. To record your screen, you choose the movie camera icon in the toolbar that appears when you tap Windows Key-Shift-S. You then select an area of the screen to record with the crosshairs cursor that appears. Next, you click Start, wait for a 3-2-1 countdown to finish, and then do your thing on the screen. When you’re finished, press Stop. Once you stop, you see a playback of the video, and you can save or share it just as with a still screenshot. An additional option is to edit in Clipchamp, which, though not our favorite video editor, is adequate for quick trims and splits. Any sound playing from your PC is included in the recorded clip.
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It’s worth noting that you can change the behavior of the PrtScn key between opening the Snipping Tool and simply copying the screen image to the clipboard. Head to Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard and switch to the option called “Use the Print screen key to open screen capture.”Finally, if you enable Clipboard History, you see your last few screenshots available for pasting when you hit Windows Key-V. That actually works with any of the screenshot methods here that copy the image to the clipboard.
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5. Install a Third-Party Screenshot Utility
For many years, I was a devout SnagIt user, particularly because I liked how it saved any screenshots I took for use later. It’s still an Editors’ Choice winner for screenshot utilities and you can certainly use it, but I now find that the built-in Windows screenshot tools serve my needs adequately. SnagIt and most other third-party utilities let you take scrolling screenshots, which are images that have automatically scrolled down to capture parts of the window that are below the visible area. The most common use for a scrolling screenshot is for a web page. Windows 11’s native screenshot methods can’t do it—but Microsoft Edge and Firefox can. In Edge, right-click on the webpage, select Web Capture, and choose Capture Full Page.Google Chrome can take scrolling screenshots, too, but you have to change a Developer Setting to get it. It’s easier to install an extension like Scrnli (though I’m not a fan of extensions, as they usually have access to all your web browsing activity).6. Select Capture Window From the Game Bar
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Windows Key-G opens the Game Bar. From there, if you go to the Capture window, you see a camera icon. Tap it and your screenshot is saved, somewhat counterintuitively, to the Videos/Captures folder under your main user folder. You can change the target folder in the main Windows Settings app. Alternatively, you can press Windows Key-Alt-PrtScn to bypass opening the Game Bar.7. Press Volume Up and Power Buttons on Surface Tablets
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Taking screenshots on Surface tablets is different from doing it on a Windows PC unless you have a keyboard attached. The on-screen touch keyboard has no PrtScn key. As mentioned, if you have a Surface Pen, you can simply double-tap its back button to open the Snipping Tool.On the Surface Pro 9 and its predecessors back through the Surface Pro 4, press the volume up and ;ower buttons at the same time to take a screenshot. Be careful to press the buttons simultaneously, or else you end up turning off the screen.The result of shooting this way is the same as pressing Windows Key-PrtScn; an image is saved to your Pictures > Screenshots folder.Older Surface tablets used the Fn-Windows Key-Spacebar combination on their attached keyboards, and some had you press the power button and a hardware Windows button simultaneously. You might have to experiment or dig into documentation if you have a less popular tablet model. How to Take a Screenshot on Any Device
There’s a good chance that you may need to take screenshots on your smartphone and other devices as well as on a Windows 11 PC. For those instances, head over to our story on how to take a screenshot on any device, which walks you through the processes used by all of your non-PC gadgets.
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