How to take screenshot on Windows 10

If you need to capture a snapshot of something on your computer screen, Windows 10 provides a number of options. Whether you want to capture the full screen or just a portion of it, I have compiled a list of the most frequent methods for capturing a screenshot in Windows 10.

By taking a screenshot, you can capture an image of your entire display—or just an area of it. Windows 10 has a variety of built-in tools for easily capturing a screenshot.

Take a screenshot on Windows 10 with the PrtScn key

Simply pressing the "Print Screen" key on your keyboard will save a copy of whatever is on your computer screen. It's usually labeled "PrtScn" (or something similar) and can be found in the top row, near or among the Function keys.

On some keyboards (particularly laptops), the Function key may be required to activate the Print Screen (in other words, hold the Function key and then press PrtScn).

Here are Windows 10 several PrtScn variations:

Press PrtScn.
This copies the entire screen to the clipboard. You can paste the screenshot into any program that displays images, like Paint or Microsoft Word.

Press Alt + PrtScn.
This copies the active window to the clipboard, which you can paste into another program.

Press the Windows key + Shift + S.
The screen will dim and the mouse pointer will change. You can drag to select a portion of the screen to capture. The screenshot will be copied to the clipboard, which you can paste into another program. (This shortcut only works if you have the latest version of Windows 10 installed, called the Windows 10 Creators Update.)

Press the Windows key + PrtScn.
This saves the entire screen as an image file. You can find it in the "Pictures" folder, in a subfolder called "Screenshots."

Take a screenshot on Windows 10 with Snipping Tool.

With Windows 10, Microsoft offers Snipping Tool, a far more flexible screenshot application. You can take a screenshot with Snipping Tool and save it as an image file without first pasting it into another program.


1. Start the Snipping Tool from the Start menu.

2. In the "Mode" drop down, choose the kind of screenshot shape you want - you can choose anything from full screen to rectangular to a free-form shape.

3. Click New, and your screen will freeze. You can then use the mouse to create the screenshot. The screenshot will then appear in the Snipping Tool window.

4. If you want to include something like a tooltip, which only appears after a mouse movement, you can specify how long to wait before taking the screenshot using the Delay menu.

5. If you want to, once you've taken your screenshot, you can use the drawing tools to annotate the screenshot.

6. When you're done, click "File" and then click "Save As" to save the completed screenshot to your computer.

7. You can also click the copy button in the Snipping Tool window - it looks like two pages laid over one another - to copy the image to your clipboard.


Well, now you know how to take screenshots on windows 10. It's very easy.