Four ways to take a screenshot in Windows 10

Published June 14, 2019

Step-by-step instructions

1. Take a screenshot of your entire screen

Press Print Screen (also F13) to save a screenshot of your entire screen to your clipboard. You can then paste the screenshot into an email or document.

NOTE: If you want to save your screenshot as a .PNG file, hold the Windows key when you press Print Screen. When using this keyboard shortcut, your screen may dim for a moment to indicate that you took a screenshot. The resulting file is saved in the C:\Users\[username]\Pictures\Screenshots directory.

2. Take a screenshot of a selected window

Hold the Alt key when you press Print Screen and the screenshot of the current window will be saved to your clipboard.

NOTE: To save a screenshot of a window as a file, press Windows + Alt + Print Screen.

3. Take a screenshot of a selected area

Press Windows + Shift + S. The screen will be greyed out and your cursor will turn into crosshairs. Drag the crosshairs over the area you want to capture and let go of the mouse button to save the screenshot to your clipboard. You can also choose one of the options in the toolbar to take a screenshot of a custom shape or of the entire screen.

4. Take a screenshot using Snip & Sketch

With Snip & Sketch open, click "New" to take a new screenshot. You can choose the tool at the top of the screen, similar to to the previous shortcut. After you take the screenshot, you can edit the screenshot in Snip & Sketch, then save it in a format other than PNG, such as a .JPEG or .GIF file.