How to: Take a Screenshot on Windows 7, 8 and 10

Knowing how to take a screenshot of your computer screen is very useful. There are scenarios where you would want to take a screenshot of the screen (or a problem) and send it to someone. Most of the times, you will be asked to send a screen shot of your problem/error message when contacting customer support as well. So, in these type of scenarios, it is useful to know how to take a screenshot.

Taking a Screenshot with Keyboard

You can take a screenshot from your keyboard. This is the easiest and the most time efficient way of taking a screenshot.

Screenshot of whole screen

Press the Prt Sc (short for print screen) key on your keyboard to take a screenshot of the whole screen. The key might have prt sc or prtsc or Print Scr printed on it (the key text might vary depending on the keyboard). It should be on the top right corner of your keyboard.

Screenshot of the current window

Hold ALT key and then press the prt sc (or prtsc or Print Scr) key on your keyboard to take the screenshot of your current window. This will only take the screenshot of a single window (that you are using right now).

Saving the screenshot

Basically, pressing the keys mentioned above take the screenshot of your screen/window. But, the screenshot isn’t saved it. It is copied in the computer’s memory but isn’t saved in a picture form, yet. Follow the steps given below in order to save the screenshot in an actual jpeg or png image that you can share to someone.

1. Take the screenshot (by following the steps given above)
2. Press Windows key once
3. Type paint in the Start search
4. Select Paint from the search results. Your paint application should be open now.

5. Hold CTRL key and press V (CTRL + V)
6. Hold CTRL key and press S (CTRL + S) or Click File and then select Save

7. Select the destination where you want the file to be saved. Give your file a name and select Save

That’s it. You can close the Paint application now and go to the destination of the saved file. You should see an image of your screen there.

Taking a screenshot with a tool

If, for some reason, your keyboard isn’t working or your keyboard doesn’t have the print screen key or the key isn’t working then you can use other tools to take a screenshot as well. One such tool is the snipping tool that comes pre-installed in the Windows. This screenshot utility tool comes in all versions (except for Windows Vista Basic and Starter Edition) so the steps given below will work on Windows Vista and later.

1. Hold Windows key and press R
2. Type snippingtool and press Enter

3. The snipping tool should be open now
4. Click the New button

5. Click hold the left mouse button and drag your mouse to make a square on the screen. Whatever comes in this square will be screenshotted.
6. Release the left mouse button to take the screenshot. A new windows will open with your screenshot in it. If you like the screenshot then click the floppy icon, select the destination of your screenshot image and click save to save the snip. On the other hand, if you don’t like the screenshot that you just took then click New to take a screenshot again.

7. You click the arrow icon (on the right side of New button) to select the shape of your screenshot. You can select Full-screen snip to automatically take the screenshot of the full-screen. You can also select the Windows snip to automatically take the screenshot of a single window. The last option is the free form snip which simply means that you will be able to take a screenshot in whatever form you want e.g. circle, star shape, rectangle, square, random shape etc.

You can repeat the above given steps whenever you want to take a screenshot of your screen.