How To Screen On Windows 10

MSI MS-16W1 — What'southward the best way to capture that Windows 10 or Windows 11 screen? Nosotros'll show yous.
Sarah Tew/CNET

Whether you're downloadingWindows eleven (find out how to download Windows 11 for gratis) or sticking withWindows 10 for a while longer, it's easy to take a screenshot to capture part of or the entirety of your display. Perchance yous want to save an online receipt, or mayhap you want to capture a particularly noteworthy gaming feat to bear witness off to your friends. Windows 10 and 11 offer the same built-in tools (Snip & Sketch and Snipping Tool), and several keyboard shortcuts will let you have a screenshot in an instant.

Here, nosotros'll walk you through how to utilize both congenital-in Windows screenshot tools and other shortcuts for taking screenshots in Windows 10 and Windows 11, so yous tin can decide which you lot similar best.

Plus, hither are more than top Windows 10 tips and tricks, how to use all of the new features in Windows 11 and what y'all need to know about upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

Now playing: Watch this: 7 ways to have screenshots in Windows 11

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Snip & Sketch

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

The easiest way to call back Snip & Sketch is with the keyboard shortcutWindows central + Shift + Due south. Y'all can also discover the Snip & Sketch tool listed in in the alphabetical list of apps accessed from the First push button as well as in the notification console where information technology listed as Screen snip. Or you can just search for it if you lot don't commit the keyboard shortcut to retentiveness. (If y'all're a frequent screenshot taker, we recommend pinning the app to the taskbar.)

snip-and-sketch — The congenital-in Snip & Sketch app has finally won us over and is now our go-to method for taking screenshots in Windows 10 and xi. And so long, Snipping Tool.
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Either the keyboard shortcut or the notification button volition dim your screen and open a tiny bill of fare at the top of your screen that lets you choose which blazon of screenshot you want to have -- rectangular, free-form, window or full-screen. Once yous accept 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 y'all miss the notification, open the notification panel and you'll run into information technology sitting in that location.

If you open up Snip & Sketch from the Start bill of fare or by searching for information technology, it volition open the Snip & Sketch window instead of the pocket-size console at the height 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 fashion, just it also lets you delay a screenshot. Click the down-pointer push button next to the New button to delay a snip for iii or 10 seconds.

Snipping tool

The Snipping tool has been effectually since Windows Vista. Windows has warned for a couple years that the Snipping Tool is moving away, but information technology'southward still kicking around, including in Windows 11. The Snipping Tool has been delisted from the list of apps from the Start carte du jour, but it's easily accessible via the search bar.

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

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

Print Screen

To capture your unabridged screen, tap the Print Screen (sometimes labeledPrtScn) primal. Your screenshot will non be saved every bit a file, but it will be copied to the clipboard. Y'all'll need to open an image editing tool (such as Microsoft Paint), paste the screenshot in the editor and save the file from in that location.

You can as well ready the PrtScn button to open the Snip & Sketch tool past going toSettings > Ease of Access > Keyboard and toggling on Utilize the PrtScn button to open up screen snipping under Impress Screen Shortcut.

pnt-scn-shortcut — Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Windows key + Print Screen

To capture your unabridged screen and automatically save the screenshot, tap the Windows key + Print Screen key. Your screen will briefly become dim to bespeak that you've but taken a screenshot, and the screenshot will exist 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 demand to open up the shot in an paradigm editor to save it.

Game bar

You can utilize the Game bar to snap a screenshot, whether you lot're in the centre of playing a game or not. Hit theWindows central + One thousand key to call up the Game bar. From here, y'all can click the screenshot button in the Game bar or use the default keyboard shortcutWindows central + Alt + PrtScnto snap a full-screen screenshot. To set your own Game bar screenshot keyboard shortcut, toSettings > Gaming > Game bar. Backing upwards a flake, you'll also need to enable Game bar from this settings page past making sure you lot've toggled onRecord game clips, screenshots and broadcasts using Game bar.

Windows Logo + Volume Downwards

If you're rocking a Microsoft Surface device, you tin use the physical (well, sort of physical) buttons to take a screenshot of your unabridged screen -- similar to how y'all would take a screenshot on whatsoever other phone or tablet. To do this, hold down the Windows Logo touch button at the lesser of your Surface screen and hit the concrete volume-down push on the side of the tablet. The screen volition dim briefly and the screenshot volition be automatically saved to the Pictures > Screenshots folder.

Want more than Windows info? Bank check out every big difference between Windows ten and Windows 11 and every feature we wanted in Windows 11 just didn't get.