How to Take a Screenshot in Microsoft Windows

Since Damien make ScreenShot such a popular topic now, I shall join in the fun~!!

Learn how to take screenshots of your internal computer problems, so that the people at Microsoft and other troubleshooting services can help you solve your problems much faster and more efficiently. It is also just fun to take screenshots and butcher your screen or set up "ghost desktops" to mess with your parents or friends.

Steps

  1. To take a screenshot of the entire screen, press the "Print Screen" (it could be labeled "PrtScn" or "PrtScrn") button on your keyboard. It can be found near the top, to the right of all the "F(x)" keys (x = 1, 2, 3, etc) and often in line with the arrow keys.
  2. To take a screenshot of just the program that is active, press and hold the "Alt" button (found on either side of the space bar), then press the "Print Screen" button.
  3. To view this screen-shot for further use, use Paint or some other graphics program. Do not use Microsoft Photo Editor; this program will only record part of your screenshot. When you are in Paint at a blank page click on "Edit" and then click on "Paste" and your screen shot will appear on the blank page.
  4. To save, just go through the usual steps for saving a picture or graphics item (for example, click File, then Save As or Save.)
  5. If you want to capture a window or dialque box click on the top bar of the window or dialoque box then holding down the alt button press on the print screen button. You then can press control v to add the window to a word processing program or presentaion program.


Tips

  • If your computer locks up (freezes up) frequently while you are running a program, take a screenshot, save it, then crash your computer. Paint is a program, so you will need to add it to your Microsoft Office shortcut bar. This is at the top right part of your screen, beside the program title bar, (unless you have unchecked the "fit to title bar area" option on "customize"). To learn how to add Paint to this shortcut box, please enter that search in the search box.
  • A free program - MWSnap can be used to capture a screen very nicely. It has many options for saving the results of the screenshot. The program is available at http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html
  • Use a conversion tool to convert BMPs (a lossless uncompressed format) saved by Paint into some other format such as JPEG or GIF or PNG.
  • Another useful (free) utility is ScreenHunter <http://www.wisdom-soft.com/products/screenhunter.htm>. ScreenHunter allows you to capture the entire screen, the active window, or a specific area you choose by dragging the pointer. It can run in the background and be called at will with a hot-key. It saves in .bmp, .gif or .jpg formats.


Warnings

  • Saving a screenshot in some file types (such as bitmaps) will result in a very large file.
  • Some people will be irritated if you email them a large attachment, remember to crop and convert.

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