Windows 10: How to Print Screen

Printing your screen, or otherwise taking a screenshot is a great way to keep a copy of whatever it is you are seeing. Windows 10 readily allows you to take snapshots of your screen whenever you want to. There are several different ways to take screenshots on your Windows 10 machine – and they all function a little differently.

Windows key + Print Screen

This is the fastest and most efficient way to take a screenshot. Pressing these two buttons together will take a screenshot of the entire screen, and automatically save it. Your screen is going to dim for a moment to show that it successfully completed the action – you can find your screenshot in the Pictures sub-folder Screenshots.

Alt + Print Screen

Pressing these two buttons together takes a screenshot of whatever window you currently have open. So, if you are looking at your browser window and press them, you’ll take a screenshot of that, even if you have other (smaller) windows open. Only the active window will be captured.

You’ll need to paste your screenshot into some form of image editor to be able to save it – consider opening Paint (via the Windows menu) to do so. Open a new instance of paint and press Ctrl + V in order to paste in your screenshot.

Game bar

When you are playing games, you can use the Game bar to take screenshots. To do so, press the Windows key + G to call the game bar up. There, you have a screenshot button to use if you want, or you can also use the keyboard shortcut Windows key + Alt + Print Screen (you can rebind this, so if it doesn’t work, check if you may have bound it to something else!).

Snipping Tool

The Snipping Tool is a program that comes pre-installed with Windows. To access it, simply press the Windows key, then type ‘Snipping Tool’ and press enter. Use the functions at the top to define your screenshot. Mode lets you set what sort of capture you want to make and clicking on New will let you draw the outline of the snip (or take a full screenshot depending on your settings). When you’ve taken the screenshot, it will automatically be pasted into an editor where you can further refine it until you are happy with it.

3^rd party software

If none of the default options are quite your thing, you also have the option of installing third-party programs to give you better options. We recommend Lightshot – it’s a quick and easy install, and it allows you to tailor exactly what you want to capture. No more cropping – you can even draw on your screenshot if you need to add a note, icon or symbol. You can save your screenshots, or share them with someone else straight away.