A picture is worth a thousand words. In many cases it helps to show someone a picture of your computer screen (called a screen shot) instead of trying to explain what you're seeing. A screen shot of an error, application or settings can be a life saver when working with a support IT professional or to show someone how to do something by showing them screen shots of every step. There will be many occasions when you'd want to capture what's on your computer screen and put it in image file. In this article we will show how to capture a screen shot of your desktop, an active window, a Website, or anything else using only Microsoft Windows and without installing any additional software.

In Windows XP

1. In Windows, you have two options-

   • Press the Print Screen (or PrtScn) key located near the upper-right corner of your keyboard to copy the entire screen to the clipboard.
   • Press Alt+Print Screen (hold the Alt key down while pressing Print Screen key) to copy only the active window.
   

2. When the desired image is stored in the Windows clipboard (only one image can be stored at a time), it can be extracted by opening a word process program (Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, etc.) or an image manipulation program such as Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Paint. Here we will use Microsoft Paint for example.

   Open Microsoft Paint. To do this, click Start > All Programs > Accessories > Paint.

   

3. Go to the Edit menu and click Paste or you can just press "Ctrl+V". Then you may crop if you like.

   

4. From menu Click File > Save As. In the box that pops up, change the "Save As Type" to PNG or JPG

   • BMP is the default option (a lossless uncompressed format)
   • PNG is a lossless compressed format
   • JPEG is a lossy, compressed image format, specifically developed for photographic images. For these images, it allows for the smallest file size. When used for non-photographic images, file size is larger than e.g. PNG and GIF and the image has a lower quality.
   • GIF is good for applications windows with a limited number of colors

   Type in a file name for your image. Choose a place to save, like the Desktop, and click save.

   

5. You have now successfully taken a screenshot!

In Windows Vista

In Windows Vista (except in Home Basic), Microsoft has included a utility called the "Snipping Tool" to make capturing screen shots easier.

1. To open it, go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Snipping Tool. Alternatively, you can type the word "snip" in the start menu search box, then hit enter (the latest version of Windows Vista updates the search results as you type each letter).

2. Snipping Tool should show up in the Programs list above the search box, Click on Snipping Tool to start it.

   

3. The Snipping Tool window will open and a white overlay appears over the screen. When you start the tool for the first time, it will assume that you would want to capture a portion of the screen right away. You can cancel this action by clicking the Cancel button.

4. Unlike Windows Print Screen which captures either the entire screen or the active window, with the Snipping Tool you can also capture any portion of the screen or any open window, not just the active window. Click on the arrow next to the 'New' button and choose from the options -

   • "Free-form Snip" - In free-form snip mode, the Snipping Tool lets you draw irregular shapes and lines around any portion of the screen you want to be captured.
   • "Rectangular Snip" - Rectangular snip mode lets you draw a box and captures the screen inside the box.
   • "Window Snip" - For window snip mode, select the window you want to capture.
   • "Full-screen Snip" - Just selecting it from the drop-down menu makes the capture.

   

5. The snipped image is then opened within the Snipping Tool, but is also copied to the Windows Clipboard for use in other applications.