The ability to take a screenshot in Windows PC has always been a handy feature. It existed since the early version of Windows and now has evolved to have dedicated screenshot taking tools in the latest version of Windows. Taking a screenshot is the best way to capture what is visible on the display or monitor. The latest version of Windows 10 comes with its own set of tools to take screenshots. These are very basic snipping tools but should fulfill your need if you are not looking for a very sophisticated screenshot taking tools. In today’s round, I will be showing you the best ways to take a screenshot in Windows 10. Apart from Windows 10, other versions of Windows OS like the Windows 8.1, Windows 7 and the Windows XP also can take a screenshot. For this guide, we will be looking at the tools available in Windows 10 to take screenshots. However, some of them will also work on the previous version of the Windows OS. Take a Screenshot in Windows 10 There are three ways to take a screenshot in Windows 10. We will begin with the traditional Print Screen key (PrntScr). In the second method will see how to use the Snipping Tool in Windows to take a screenshot. In the third method, I will show you how to use the Game Bar feature from the Xbox app to take a screenshot. There is one more screenshot taking tool called Microsoft Snip editor for Windows 10. We will discuss it later in the post. 1. Take a Screenshot using PrntScr Key The Print Screen or PrntScr key is available on all the Windows OS running PCs since a long time. It allows you to take a quick snapshot of your screen and save it as a PNG file. The Print Screen key on your keyboard is placed beside the function keys. Some laptops may have the PrntScr key in function key itself. In that case, you may have to use the “Ctrl key PrntScr” key combination to take a screenshot. To take a screenshot in Windows 10, press the PrntScr key on your keyboard. Make sure you minimize all the unwanted windows before taking the screenshot. Pressing the PrntScr key will copy the screenshot to your clipboard. Now open an image editing tool like MS Paint or sophisticated tools like Photoshop, and paste the screenshot into it. Make any necessary edits to it, click on “Save as”, and save the screenshot with a name. If you want to save the screenshot directly as soon as you take it without using the MS Paint or Photoshop, then press “Windows logo key PrntScr”. It will dim your screen for a second, and your taken screenshot will be saved in C:\Users\dell\Videos\Pictures\Screenshots. If you don’t have a screenshots folder already, then Windows will create a new Screenshots folder and save all your screenshots in it. The downside here is that you will not get to name your screenshot while saving it and all the screenshots will be saved as “screenshot(1).png”. The index number will increase with each new screenshot to 1. By default, all your screenshots will be saved in PNG format. Of course, you can rename it later. In case you want to take a screenshot of only one active window, you can do this by using the “Alt PrntScr” key combination. For this, you don’t need to minimize all the open windows. Click on the window of which you want to take the screenshot, and press “Ctrl PrntScr” key. It will copy the screenshot of your current active window to the clipboard. Open MS Paint or any other image editing software and paste the screenshot into it. Later you can proceed with editing or saving the screenshot. 2. Take a Screenshot using Snipping Tool The Snipping tool in Windows OS is available for a while now. In Windows 10, the snipping tool comes with a new delay feature that allows you to take a screenshot of pop-up windows and menus easily. If you have used Snipping tool to capture screenshots previously in Windows 8 or 7, you know that you cannot take screenshots of pop-up windows as the pop-up window would hide itself when you click on the “New” button. By using the delay feature in Snipping tool, you can delay the screenshot capturing time up to 5 seconds after pressing the “New snip” button. Open Snipping Tool in Windows 10. Click on the Delay button and from the drop-down menu, set the delay time. You can set the delay time up to 5 seconds and minimum of 0 that will result in instant capture. For example if you want to capture the Start screen in Windows 10, open Snipping Tool, click on delay and set the time to 3 seconds. Click on “New snip” button in Snipping Tool. Now you have 3 seconds before the screen fades out. Click on Start and wait till the screen fades out. After 3 seconds when the screen fades out, you can take a screenshot of the start screen. You can also select and take screenshots in different forms. To do this, click on the down arrow button beside “New” button in Snipping Tool. From the drop-down menu, you can select “Free-form Snip”, Rectangular Snip, Window Snip and Full-screen Snip. So, next time you want to take a screenshot of a tool tip or a pop-up window, remember delay feature in Snipping Tool. 3. Take a Screenshot in Windows 10 with Game Bar (Xbox app feature) The Windows 10 comes with Xbox app pre-installed. Apart from all the usual advantages of Xbox app in Windows 10, you can also make use of the Game Bar feature to take a screenshot or to record a screen. The Game Bar feature allows you to take a screenshot of your current active window in Windows 10. If you haven’t enabled the Game Bar feature, open the Xbox App. Go to Settings, click on Game DVR tab and enable it by toggling the button to On. Below you can also configure a keyboard shortcut for Game Bar, but the default keyboard shortcut to open the Game bar in Windows 10 is “Windows logo key G” or “Win G”. Once configured, close the Xbox App. Press “Windows logo key G” to open the Game bar app. Click on the “Camera icon” to save the screenshot of your current active window. Alternatively, you can also press “Windows logo key Alt PrntScr” to save the screenshot. You can view the saved screenshots from Xbox app. Open Xbox app, go to Game DVR and click “On this PC”. Here all your saved screenshots are displayed. 4. Take Screenshot using Microsoft Snip Editor Microsoft released a new snipping tool named as Snip Editor for Windows 10 users recently. The app doesn’t come built-in to Windows 10, but you need to download it from the official Microsoft website. Microsoft Snip Editor isn’t just a basic screenshot taking tool but comes with some advanced features as well. You can take screenshots, add an annotation to them, draw anything with a whiteboard, add voice to your screenshots and share them. Once installed, run Snip Editor. The tool should autostart with every restart. The Snip Editor will be minimized at the top of your display. Hover your cursor over it to view the tool. Click on the rectangular icon to capture the screenshot of your screen.You can add an annotation to the captured screenshot. You can also add voice notes to your captured screenshot. Clicking on the “Camera Icon” will start your webcam. Clicking on the Pen icon will open the Whiteboard in Snip Editor. You can save your screenshot pressing “Ctrl S”. So, these are the best ways to take a screenshot in Window 10 without using any third-party tools. There are several third-party tools available, but for basic screenshot taking tasks built-in tools are more than enough.
