How to take a screenshot in Microsoft Windows 7, Vista and XP

Knowing how to take a picture of your screen, or the contents of a single window, can be very useful. Follow the simple steps below to find out how to do it!


To capture an image of the entire screen, press the Print Screen key on your keyboard. It may also be labelled "Prtn Scrn", "Prt Scr", or another similar variation.

On some keyboards you may need to press the "Function" or "Fn" key in conjunction with the Print Screen key to capture an image.

When you have pressed Print Screen, an image of the entire screen is copied to the Windows clipboard. To make use of this screenshot, open an image editing program such as Microsoft Paint, then press Ctrl + V to paste the screen capture into the program, or click the Paste icon.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Now, you can edit the picture if you want to, and save it in the file format of your choice.

Click image to enlarge

It's generally a good idea to save the image as either a PNG or JPG file, especially if you want to use it on the internet.
If you save the image as BMP (Bitmap) file, it will be a very high quality, uncompressed image but it will also have a much larger file size than a PNG or JPG.
PNG and JPG files are better choices for use on the internet because they use compression which yields a much smaller file size.
If you plan to put your screenshot on a website then select PNG as the file type because it offers a good balance between file size and image quality.


Also, you can paste the screenshot directly into a Microsoft Word document, or into an email without the need to open it in an image editing program first.
All you need to do is click in the Word document where you want to place the image, then press Ctrl + V, or right click and select Paste from the menu.

How to capture an image of only the currently active window

You can also take a screenshot of only the currently active window. To do this, press Alt + Print Screen (press and hold the Alt key then press Print Screen key).
For example, here is an unedited picture of my Google Chrome browser which was taken using this method:

Click image to enlarge

Then follow the steps above to view and edit your new screenshot.

Windows Snipping Tool

If you have Microsoft Windows Vista, or Windows 7, you can use the Snipping Tool to take different types of screenshot. Click this link to find out how to use the Snipping Tool