We explain to you how to easily take a screen­shot on Windows 10 and how these can be edited.

The most important in brief

  • Capture the entire screen and copy to clipboard: [PrtScn] key (note: for some laptops press [Fn] + [PrtScn])
  • Take a screen­shot of the currently active window and copy to clipboard: [Alt] + [PrtScn]
  • Capture a self-selected area: [Windows key] + [Shift ⇧] + [s] using the key com­bi­na­tion [Ctrl] + [v] insert the screen­shot in the chosen location
  • Take a screen­shot and save it directly in the folder path Images > Screen­shots: [Windows key] + [PrtScn]
$1 Domain Names – Grab your favorite one
  • Simple reg­is­tra­tion
  • Premium TLDs at great prices
  • 24/7 personal con­sul­tant included
  • Free privacy pro­tec­tion for eligible domains

Keyboard shortcuts for taking screen­shots in Windows 10

With just a quick keystroke, you could have the current display on your screen as a hard copy in your hand. In the early days of the personal computer, the [Print] key was a practical tool for printing out what you saw on your monitor. Since then, the function has changed a bit. When you press the key, the image is not sent directly to the printer. Instead, the screen­shot is saved to the operating system’s temporary memory (i.e. the clipboard). This is also the case in Windows 10. However, some Microsoft users do not realize that they can also use this handy key in com­bi­na­tion with other keys:

  • [Print], [Prnt] or [Prnt Scrn]: Re­gard­less of whether you are using one screen or two, pressing this key will take a screen­shot of every­thing that is currently displayed on the screen(s).
  • [Alt] + [Print]: If you only want to take a screen­shot of a single window, use this keyboard shortcut. This will select the window in which you have placed your cursor.
  • [Fn] + [Print]: Mobile devices such as laptops are smaller than con­ven­tion­al computers, hence many of the keys on their keyboards have two functions to save space. The screen­shot function is accessed on these devices by using the [Fn] key.
  • [Windows] + [Print]: Screen­shots can also be taken in quick suc­ces­sion in Windows 10. If you take a screen­shot while holding down the Windows key, it will be saved directly as a PNG file. You can usually find it under “This PC” > “Pictures” > “Screen­shots”. Windows 10 also au­to­mat­i­cal­ly numbers the files in ascending order. This keyboard shortcut works in com­bi­na­tion with [Alt] and/or [Fn].
Image: Keyboard with the [Windows], [Alt] and [Print] keys highlighted
If you press the [Windows], [Alt] and [Print] keys at the same time, you can save the currently selected window as a PNG file in the “Screen­shots” folder.

You should keep in mind that the clipboard in Windows 10 can only store one screen­shot at a time. If you press the [Print] key again, the previous screen­shot will be replaced – one more reason to hold down the Windows key to save the images. PNG files can easily be dragged and dropped from the “Screen­shots” folder into virtually any Microsoft ap­pli­ca­tion (e.g. into Paint for further editing). You can paste images from the clipboard into the currently open project using the copy-paste function ([Ctrl] + [V]). Of course, you can also simply use the Photos app or any other image editing program, such as Gimp or Paint.NET.

Tip

There are numerous other screen­shot tools for taking screen­shots in Windows 10 in addition to the ones mentioned here.

Taking screen­shots in Windows 10 using the Snipping Tool

Regular Microsoft users have probably come across the Snipping Tool which was found in previous versions of the operating system under Ac­ces­sories in the start menu. In Windows 10, it can be found under “Windows” > “All apps” (keyboard shortcut [Windows] + [Q]) or by using the search function. This little tool offers ad­di­tion­al options for taking and editing screen­shots in Windows 10:

  • Full-screen snip: It takes a screen­shot of every­thing displayed on the screen.
  • Window snip: It only takes a screen­shot of the window that you clicked on with the mouse.
  • Rec­tan­gu­lar snip: Similar to many other image editing programs, you can drag a rectangle to select an area to be included in the screen­shot.
  • Free-form snip: This works exactly like the rec­tan­gu­lar snip, but you can freely choose the shape of the area you want to include in the screen­shot.
  • Delay: The clock button is new to Windows 10. Click on it to set a delay of one to five seconds for taking the next screen­shot. This allows you to include screen elements that are only visible when a specific key or the mouse button is being held down (e.g. a drop-down menu).
Image: Using the Windows 10 Snipping Tool in WordPad
The Snipping Tool allows you to take screen­shots in four different ways.
Image: “Delay” function in the Windows 10 Snipping Tool
In Windows 10, the Snipping Tool has a brand new function which allows you to set time delays when taking screen­shots.
tirNbkEXZII.jpg To display this video, third-party cookies are required. You can access and change your cookie settings here.

How do you take a screen­shot of a website in Windows 10?

The Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts and the Snipping Tool allow you to take a screen­shot of what you can see on your screen at that moment. So, what do you do if you cannot see all the important in­for­ma­tion at once, such as with a scrolling website? For such cases, you can use special add-ons for your browser.

For Google Chrome, you could use Fireshot or Awesome Screen­shot – the latter even allows you to take videos of your screen. For Mozilla Firefox, Fireshot works or you could also use Awesome Screen­shot Plus.

How it works:

  1. Open your browser. Click on the link for your desired add-on and press the “Add” button on the page that opens.
  2. The add-on will au­to­mat­i­cal­ly be installed and appear as a button in the upper right-hand corner below your browser’s address bar.
  3. Click on it to configure the settings and take a screen­shot of the entire website.
Go to Main Menu