There may be many times when you need to quickly capture what is on your screen. Whether it’s to show technical support an issue, or to grab something on a website so you can refer to it later, this is a useful tool to use. There are two options on a Windows desktop that allow you to easily grab a screen capture.

Option 1: Windows Snipping Tool (best)

  1. Click the Start button/orb in the lower left-corner of your screen
  2. In the search box, type in snipping tool
    snipping-tool
  3. Press Enter
  4. The screen will go dim and you can then use your mouse to click and drag around the section of the screen you want to capture
    screenshot-01
  5. Release your mouse, and you will be prompted to save the screen capture. Save your file to your desktop so you can find it easily later. You can then add the file as an attachment if sending it via email.

Option 2: Print Screen

  1. Press the PrtScn button on your keyboard. It may be named slightly different. This key is usually placed in the upper- right side of the keyboard
    prt-scn
  2. This will copy the entire screen to your clipboard. You can then right-click in your e-mail or document and select Paste. This will paste the screen capture.
  3. If you have a multiple monitors, or a larger screen, you may want to only capture the active window. Do this by holding down the Alt key and then pressing the PrtScn button to capture the single window that you have selected.
    PrtScn showing three monitors:
    screenshot-02
    Alt+PrtScn
    showing only the currently selected window:   screenshot-03

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