7 ways you can take screenshots in Windows 10

Capture all of your Windows 10 screen — or just part of it — with a few keystrokes.

What’s the best way to capture that Windows 10 screen? We’ll show you.

Taking a screenshot is a quick and easy way to capture part of or the entirety of your display, from an image you want to annotate and share to an online receipt you’d like to snip and save. In Windows 10 ($170 at Best Buy) , there is a pair of built-in tools — Snip & Sketch and Snipping Tool — as well as a number of keyboard shortcuts for capturing screenshots.

Microsoft introduced the Snip & Sketch tool for taking screenshots in Windows 10 a couple years ago, but only recently made a change to the app that has finally led me to embrace it and say goodbye to the tried-and-true Snipping Tool. (No hard feelings, Snipping Tool. We had a good run together.)

Get more out of your tech

I’ll cover both built-in Windows screenshot tools so you can choose for yourself — along with a few other shortcuts for taking screenshots with Windows 10.

Snip & Sketch

The Snip & Sketch tool is easier to access, share and annotate screenshots than the old Snipping Tool. And it can now capture a screenshot of a window on your desktop, a surprising omission when the app was first introduced that kept me on Team Snipping Tool until recently.

The easiest way to call up Snip & Sketch is with the keyboard shortcut Windows key + Shift + S. You can also find the Snip & Sketch tool listed in in the alphabetical list of apps accessed from the Start button as well as in the notification panel where it listed as Screen snip. Or you can just search for it if you don’t commit the keyboard shortcut to memory. (If you’re regular screenshot taker, I recommend pinning the app to the taskbar.)

The built-in Snip & Sketch app has finally won me over and is now my go-to method for taking screenshots in Windows 10. 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 menu at the top of your screen that lets you choose which type of screenshot you want to take — rectangular, free-form, window or full-screen. Once you take your screenshot, it will be saved to your clipboard and show up momentarily as a notification in the lower-right corner of your screen. Click the notification to open the screenshot in the Snip & Sketch app to annotate, save or share it. (If you miss the notification, open the notification panel and you’ll see it sitting there.

If you open Snip & Sketch from the Start menu or by searching for it, it will open the Snip & Sketch window instead of the small panel at the top of the screen. From here, you need to click the New button in the upper-left to initiate a screen capture and open the small panel. It’s an extra step to proceed this way, but it also lets you delay a screenshot. Click the down-arrow button next to the New button to delay a snip for 3 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, but it’s still kicking around. The Snipping Tool has been delisted from the list of apps from the Start menu, but it’s easily accessible via the search bar.

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

The Snipping Tool does not automatically save your screenshots — you will need to manually save them in the tool before you exit — and it does automatically copy your captures to the clipboard.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Print Screen

To capture your entire screen, tap the Print Screen (sometimes labeled PrtScn) key. Your screenshot will not be saved as a file, but it will 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 set the PrtScn button to open the Snip & Sketch tool by going to Settings > Ease of Access > Keyboard and toggling on Use the PrtScn button to open screen snipping under Print Screen Shortcut.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Windows key + Print Screen

To capture your entire screen and automatically save the screenshot, tap the Windows key + Print Screen key. Your screen will briefly go dim to indicate that you’ve just 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, use the keyboard shortcut Alt + PrtScn. This will snap your currently active window and copy the screenshot to the clipboard. You’ll need to open the shot in an image editor to save it.

Game bar

You can use the Game bar to snap a screenshot, whether you’re in the middle of playing a game or not. Hit the Windows key + G key to call up the Game bar. From here, you can click the screenshot button in the Game bar or use the default keyboard shortcut Windows key + Alt + PrtScn to snap a full-screen screenshot. To set your own Game bar screenshot keyboard shortcut, to Settings > Gaming > Game bar. Backing up a bit, you’ll also need to enable Game bar from this settings page by making sure you’ve toggled on Record game clips, screenshots, and broadcast using Game bar.

Windows Logo + Volume Down

If you’re rocking a Microsoft Surface device , you can use the physical (well, sort of physical) buttons to take a screenshot of your entire screen — similar to how you would take a screenshot on any other phone or tablet. To do this, hold down the Windows Logo touch button at the bottom of your Surface screen and hit the physical volume-down button on the side of the tablet. The screen will dim briefly and the screenshot will be automatically saved to the Pictures > Screenshots folder.

How to take a Windows 10 screenshot: The 7 best techniques

The ability to take screenshots of the entire or part of the screen can be useful in many scenarios. For instance, when you want to share some interesting content with others, or you need to get help when an error message pops up on your computer. Or if you want to save a copy of a form before submitting, keep proof of something, or putting together a guide like this one.

No matter the situation, Windows 10 have you covered with several easy ways to capture and save screenshots using keyboard shortcuts, hardware keys, and starting with the October 2018 Update, you can even use the Snip & Sketch app to take, edit, and share captures using social media or email.

In this Windows 10 guide, we’ll walk you through the different ways to take screenshots of the entire screen, only from a particular active window, or a scene from your favorite game.

How to take screenshots on Windows 10

Here are seven ways to capture screenshots on Windows 10:

Taking screenshots using Windows 10

Out-of-the-box Windows 10 includes a few ways to take screenshots of the entire screen or active window.

Capturing entire screen to clipboard

PrtScrn (or Ctrl + PrtScrn): These keyboard shortcuts will capture a screenshot of the entire screen to the clipboard, which you can then paste on any application. These shortcuts work whether you’re using one or multiple displays.

Saving entire screen to file

Windows key + PrtScrn: Using this shortcut, a screenshot of the entire screen will be saved to an image file. All captures using this method will save into the Screenshots folders inside the Pictures folder.

Capturing active window

• Alt + PrtScrn: Using this combo, you can take a screenshot of an active window. The capture will copy to the clipboard, and you can then paste it on any application.

Taking screenshots using Snip & Sketch

Beginning with the October 2018 Update, Windows 10 introduces Snip & Sketch, a new app designed specifically to take screenshots and replace the old Snipping Tool.

Similar to the legacy tool, using the app, you can take screenshots on Windows 10 in a number of ways.

Capturing clips using Snip & Sketch

To take a screenshot using Snip & Sketch, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Snip & Sketch, click the top result to open the app.

Click the New button in the top-left corner.

Select the type of snip you want to use, including:

• Rectangular Clip.
• Freeform Clip.
• Fullscreen Clip.

Capturing clips using Action Center

If you want to take a screenshot to paste on a document, you can use the new Screen snip button with these steps:

Open Action Center.

Quick tip: Use the Windows key + A keyboard shortcut, or click the Action Center button in the notification area to open the experience.

Click the Screen snip button.

Select the type of snip you want to use, including:

• Rectangular Clip.
• Freeform Clip.
• Fullscreen Clip.

Capturing using the Print Screen button

Alternatively, you can now remap the print screen key on the keyboard to bring up the Snipping tools interface to take screenshots on Windows 10.

You can manually configure this option on Settings > Ease of Access > Keyboard, and enabling the Use the PrtScrn button to open screen snipping option.

Once the option is enabled, you can take screenshots on Windows 10 using the PrtScrn key. Here’s how:

Press the PrtScrn button.

Select the type of snip you want to use, including:

• Rectangular Clip.
• Freeform Clip.
• Fullscreen Clip.

Using the «Screen snip» button or the «PrtScrn» key, the screenshot will copy to the clipboard. If you want to annotate the snip or save it into a file, you need to click the Snip & Sketch notification in Action Center.

Accessing Screen snipping tools

Windows key + Shift + S: If you don’t want to change your settings, you can use this keyboard shortcut to bring up the Screen snipping tools to take a screenshot.

The Windows key + Shift + S was previously the shortcut to take a screenshot of a particular area of the screen using the Snipping Tool, but it’s now part of Snip & Sketch.

Alongside the ability to capture clips, using Snip & Sketch, you can annotate, share screenshots, and more. You can check our guide to learn more about how to use this new experience.

While you can continue to use the legacy Snipping Tool, we’re not listing it in this guide, because it’s a deprecated feature, and it may stop working in the future, and Microsoft can remove it at any time.

Taking screenshots using Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge users can also take screenshots of any web page they’re viewing and save it to OneNote or share it with other people using the notes feature.

To take a screenshot of a website, do the following:

1. Open Microsoft Edge.
2. Load the website.

Click the Add notes button in the toolbar.

Quick Tip: Similar to Snip & Sketch, you can annotate the image, add notes, crop, and more.

Click the Save button.

Select OneNote.

Click the Save button.

Alternatively, you can click the Share button to share the image with other people through email or social media.

Taking screenshots using Surface

If you own a Surface device, you can also take screenshots in a number of ways with and without the keyboard.

Fn + Windows key + Spacebar: This shortcut takes a screenshot of the screen and saves the image in the Pictures folder, inside the Screenshots folder.

Fn + Spacebar: Stores the screenshot of the entire screen in the clipboard, which you can then paste on any application.

Fn + Alt + Spacebar: Takes a screenshot of a window to the clipboard, which you can then paste on any application.

Power button + volume down: On supported devices, such as Surface Pro 6 and older models, takes a screenshot of the entire screen and saves the image to the Screenshots folder.

Double-click the Surface Pen top button: If you’re using any Surface device, you can double-click the top button, select a region of the screen that you want to capture dragging the pen from one corner to the opposite corner. As you lift the pen from the screen, your selection is sent to a new page in OneNote.

Of course, this feature only works, if on Settings > Devices > Pen & Windows Ink, under the «Pen shortcuts» section, you’re using the Send screenshot to OneNote option for the «Double-click» setting.

Taking screenshots using laptop

If you have a standard clamshell laptop, you can also use the function key to take screenshots on Windows 10.

• Fn + Windows key + PrtScrn: Captures everything on the screen, and saves the image in the Pictures folder, inside the Screenshots folder.
• Fn + PrtScrn (or Fn + Ctrl + PrtScrn): Sends the screenshot to clipboard, which you can then paste on any application.
• Fn + Alt + PrtScrn: Takes screenshots of an active window and copies the image to the clipboard, which then you can paste on any application.

Taking screenshots using Game Bar

On Windows 10, you can also take screenshots of your favorite games using the Game Bar.

To capture a screenshot while playing a game, do the following:

Open Start.

Search for Game Bar, and click the top result to open the experience.

Quick Tip: You can also use the Windows key + G keyboard shortcut to open the Game Bar.

Under «Game capturing,» click the Camera button to take the screenshot.

After completing the steps, the capture will be saved as a .png file in the Screenshots folder.

This screen capturing feature is limited to games as some apps like Microsoft Edge, but this feature may not work to take screenshots of File Explorer or desktop.

Taking screenshots using third-party apps

Although you can perfectly take screenshots on Windows 10, you can use third-party apps, as they usually tend to bundle additional features, such as the ability to set custom keyboard shortcuts, editing tools, and more.

Here’s a list with a few recommendations:

How do you take screenshots on Windows 10?) Taking pictures of the screen with your phone doesn’t count.) Tell us in the comments.

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:

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