Screen Capture or Print Screen

While many people are well familiar with "taking a screen-shot of your PC", some others might wonder what it is. On an Windows PC, the "Print Screen" feature can either capture the entire screen of your PC, or an individual window. This is a simple but very helpful tip. Once you know about it, you will find it very useful in many situations, i.e. when you need to show a tech-support person an error alert on your screen, or a sample screen of an application software...

The following instructions will show you how to capture a screen shot of your entire desktop or an individual window. On most standard keyboards, the print screen button is often identified as "Print Scrn".

To capture a screen shot of your entire desktop:

1. Hit "Print Screen" key on your keyboard (or "Print Scrn").
2. Open an image editor (i.e. Photoshop, Paintshop, or the Windows built-in "Paint").
3. Press Ctrl-V to paste the image and save the file as your favorite picture format (i.e. *.JPG).

To capture a screen shot of an individual window, a popup, or an error dialog:

1. Make sure the window or popup which you want to capture is active (on the very front of your screen).
2. Hold the "Alt" button and press "Print Screen" key on your keyboard (or "Print Scrn").
3. Open an image editor and press Ctrl-V to paste the image and save the file as your favorite picture format (i.e. *.JPG).