How To Save Screenshot On Windows

MSI MS-16W1 — What'south the all-time style to capture that Windows 10 or Windows 11 screen? We'll show you.
Sarah Tew/CNET

Whether you're downloadingWindows 11 (discover out how to download Windows eleven for free) or sticking withWindows 10 for a while longer, it's easy to have a screenshot to capture part of or the entirety of your display. Maybe you want to save an online receipt, or perhaps you lot want to capture a particularly noteworthy gaming feat to evidence off to your friends. Windows 10 and 11 offer the same built-in tools (Snip & Sketch and Snipping Tool), and several keyboard shortcuts will let y'all take a screenshot in an instant.

Here, we'll walk y'all through how to use both built-in Windows screenshot tools and other shortcuts for taking screenshots in Windows 10 and Windows 11, so you lot can decide which you like best.

Plus, here are more top Windows ten tips and tricks, how to use all of the new features in Windows 11 and what yous demand to know about upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows xi.

At present playing: Watch this: 7 means to have screenshots in Windows 11

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Snip & Sketch

The Snip & Sketch tool is easier to admission, share and annotate screenshots than the onetime Snipping Tool. And it can at present capture a screenshot of a window on your desktop, a surprising omission when the app was first introduced that kept us on Squad Snipping Tool until recently.

The easiest way to remember Snip & Sketch is with the keyboard shortcutWindows key + Shift + S. Yous tin as well detect the Snip & Sketch tool listed in in the alphabetical listing of apps accessed from the Start push button also equally in the notification panel where it listed as Screen snip. Or you tin just search for it if you don't commit the keyboard shortcut to memory. (If you're a frequent screenshot taker, we recommend pinning the app to the taskbar.)

snip-and-sketch — The built-in Snip & Sketch app has finally won us over and is at present our become-to method for taking screenshots in Windows 10 and 11. So long, Snipping Tool.
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Either the keyboard shortcut or the notification button will dim your screen and open a tiny card at the top of your screen that lets you cull which type of screenshot you want to take -- rectangular, complimentary-form, window or total-screen. Once yous accept your screenshot, it will be saved to your clipboard and prove up momentarily as a notification in the lower-right corner of your screen. Click the notification to open up the screenshot in the Snip & Sketch app to annotate, save or share information technology. (If y'all miss the notification, open the notification console and you'll come across information technology sitting at that place.

If you open up Snip & Sketch from the Outset menu or by searching for information technology, it will open the Snip & Sketch window instead of the small-scale panel at the top of the screen. From here, yous need to click the New push button in the upper-left to initiate a screen capture and open the small panel. Information technology's an extra step to proceed this mode, but it likewise lets y'all delay a screenshot. Click the down-arrow button side by side to the New push button to delay a snip for iii or 10 seconds.

Snipping tool

The Snipping tool has been around since Windows Vista. Windows has warned for a couple years that the Snipping Tool is moving away, just it's yet kicking effectually, including in Windows eleven. The Snipping Tool has been delisted from the list of apps from the Starting time menu, just it's easily accessible via the search bar.

Click theNew push button to begin the screenshot process. The default snip type is a rectangular snip, merely you can also take free-form, full-screen and window snips.

The Snipping Tool does non automatically salvage your screenshots -- you will need to manually save them in the tool before you lot exit -- and it does automatically re-create your captures to the clipboard.

Print Screen

To capture your entire screen, tap the Print Screen (sometimes labeledPrtScn) key. Your screenshot will non exist saved every bit a file, but it volition be copied to the clipboard. You'll need to open an image editing tool (such as Microsoft Paint), paste the screenshot in the editor and save the file from there.

You can also prepare the PrtScn push button to open the Snip & Sketch tool past going toSettings > Ease of Access > Keyboard and toggling on Use the PrtScn button to open screen snipping nether Impress Screen Shortcut.

pnt-scn-shortcut — Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Windows primal + Print Screen

To capture your unabridged screen and automatically relieve the screenshot, tap the Windows central + Print Screen key. Your screen will briefly get dim to betoken that yous've merely taken a screenshot, and the screenshot will be saved to the Pictures > Screenshots folder.

Alt + Print Screen

To take a quick screenshot of the active window, utilise the keyboard shortcut Alt + PrtScn. This will snap your currently active window and re-create the screenshot to the clipboard. You'll need to open the shot in an image editor to salvage it.

Game bar

You tin can use the Game bar to snap a screenshot, whether yous're in the middle of playing a game or non. Hit theWindows primal + M key to call upwards the Game bar. From here, you tin can click the screenshot button in the Game bar or apply the default keyboard shortcutWindows cardinal + Alt + PrtScnto snap a total-screen screenshot. To ready your own Game bar screenshot keyboard shortcut, toSettings > Gaming > Game bar. Backing upward a bit, you'll also demand to enable Game bar from this settings page by making sure you've toggled onTape game clips, screenshots and broadcasts using Game bar.

Windows Logo + Volume Down

If y'all're rocking a Microsoft Surface device, you lot tin can utilise the physical (well, sort of physical) buttons to accept a screenshot of your entire screen -- like to how you would accept a screenshot on whatever other telephone or tablet. To practice this, concord down the Windows Logo touch push at the bottom of your Surface screen and hit the physical volume-down button on the side of the tablet. The screen volition dim briefly and the screenshot will be automatically saved to the Pictures > Screenshots folder.

Desire more Windows info? Check out every big difference betwixt Windows 10 and Windows 11 and every characteristic we wanted in Windows 11 but didn't get.