How to take screenshots in Windows 11

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WINDOWS 11 By Lance Whitney The ability to take a screenshot in Windows can come in handy, both for personal and professional reasons. Maybe you’re do
[See the full post at: How to take screenshots in Windows 11]

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fisher75, Norio, geekdom, abbodi86, lmacri

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Regarding the section of this post titled “Using the Print Screen Key”, can Win 11 users still use the Alt+PrtScr key combination to capture a screenshot of the active window (e.g., a pop-up error or user interface of an open program) instead of the entire screen?
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lmacri wrote:

can Win 11 users still use the Alt+PrtScr key combination to capture a screenshot of the active window

Yes.

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We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

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lmacri

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While PrintScreen will take a screenshot of the entire screen, using ALT+PrintScreen (at least in Win7 and Win10) takes a screenshot of just the focused window. I’ve been using that for many years.

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Add Snipping Tool to Toolbar for access ease:

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I agree with the others. I have used ALT-PrtScr for years in Win10 and Win11 to capture screenshots. I use it for zoom webinars where I want to capture the slides I am being shown. I open up a Word doc and move it so only a portion is on screen on the right side (tip = make it 70% size and minimize the width). I type a title at the top and put three pages of carriage return lines beneath it. I save it to an appropriate folder. Now I am ready for the webinar. To facilitate this blank file I have one called Webinar.doc that is ready to go. I just rename it for each use so the original Webinar.doc is always there for me.

When the zoom event starts I maneuver the zoom screen so it is on the left side and slightly overlays the Word doc. That way I know which window has my current focus by seeing which window is full or hidden.

As the slides progress I click once on the slide so that is the focus, click ALT-PrtScr, and then click on the Word doc. Place the cursor at the right location (I leave a line in between images) and press Ctrl-V to paste the image . Click two lines down to be ready for the next image and click on the zoom slide again to shift the focus back to it. Rinse and repeat.

It becomes second nature when you get used to it and is very quick and easy. You end up with your Word doc having all of the images in sequence. Because you have a line between images you can also type in some pertinent notes or copy a URL in place. That is handy for when someone types a pertinent URL or other info into the chat and you can copy and paste it into your Word doc.

Caveat: if you don’t have the focus back on the slide and press ALT-PrtScr, you will paste a copy of your Word doc next instead of your intended slide image. Don’t panic, it happens. Delete the bad image and start over with the focus again on the slide. Don’t forget to save your Word doc. If you are watching a slide show where they use a lot of slides you can always add extra lines at the end of your Word doc to accommodate them. When the zoom event is done delete the extra lines at the end because you don’t need them any more.

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WSrlhess

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Lance, you are familiar with ALT+PrtScr (screen-shot of just the current app), aren’t you? I’m using Windows 10, but I assume this feature is still available in Windows 11. You can resize the window to frame just the content you want to capture. I use this very often.

(Oops! Didn’t see the previous replies before I hit ‘Submit’.)  

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One downside of using the Snipping Tool is that there’s no Undo capability (at least for me). For example, when I circle something on the initial screenshot, I either have to do it perfectly the first time or I have to retake the screenshot and try again. Is this just me, or does it behave this way for everyone else too?

(FWIW, this has been the same in Windows 7 and in Windows 10 on my work desktop, home desktop and personal laptop.)

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It’s not just you. Undo is a much-requested feature.

I normally use …, Open with, Paint for that reason.

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Strange, my Snipping Tool does have undo and redo on Win 11. My Win 10 Snip & Sketch does as well.

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b

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Ah yes, thanks. Ctrl+Z/Ctr+Y as well as the icons work on Windows 11.

Only Snipping Tool on Windows 7 and Windows 10 doesn’t have undo/redo.

(I really use Open with Paint to access line and shape drawing tools.)

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Lance Whitney wrote:

Otherwise, pressing WinKey+Ctrl+S in either version of Windows opens the toolbar to let you capture the area you want.

WinKey+Ctrl+S turns on Windows Speech Recognition:

Windows keyboard shortcuts for accessibility

I think you meant WinKey+Shift+S again.

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