Ways to take screenshots on Windows 11

Windows 11 Equipped with more screen capture and recording tools than you might think. Here are the ways you can Take screenshots on Windows 11.

Windows 11 offers many different ways to take screenshots, from the key Print Screen traditional to instrumental Snipping Tool with full features. You can add captions to photos or even use optical character recognition (OCR) to extract text with ease. Windows also allows you to record your screen, and also supports trimming videos and converting them into GIF animations with just a few simple steps.

Snipping Tool panel

The built-in Snipping Tool lets you take, save, annotate, and share screenshots of all or part of your screen. It can also record video — with audio — of a window on your desktop. The easiest way to open the Snipping Tool is to use a keyboard shortcut Windows + Shift + S.

Either way, the screen will darken and a small panel will appear at the top, allowing you to choose the capture type: rectangular, free-form, windowed, or full screen.

After taking a photo, the photo will be saved to the clipboard and quickly displayed as a notification in the lower right corner of the screen. Click the notification to open the photo in the Snipping Tool app if you want to add a caption, save, or share the photo.

To start recording video, you need to select an area on the screen and then click the button Start on the small control panel at the top of the screen. You can choose to record system sound, sound from the microphone, or both.

Snipping Tool window

If you search for Snipping Tool from the taskbar or open it from the alphabetical list of apps in the menu Starta small window will appear instead of the small control panel at the top of the screen. Here, you need to click on the button New (New) in the upper left corner to start taking a screenshot and open a small panel. This method takes an extra step but allows you to delay the shutter timer by 3, 5, or 10 seconds.

Snipping Tool allows you to take screenshots after a short delay if you open it as a window instead of the small panel at the top of the screen.

After opening the Snipping Tool, click the button New to start the photography process. The default capture type is rectangular, but you can also choose to capture in a freeform shape, full screen, or window capture. The Snipping Tool does not automatically save the captured image — you need to manually save it before exiting — but it will automatically copy the captured image to the clipboard.

Print Screen

To capture the entire screen, press the key Print Screen (PrtScn). The screenshot will not be saved as a file but copied to the clipboard. You need to open an image editing tool (like MS Paint), paste the photo there and save the file.

You can also set to keys PrtScn open Snipping Tool by entering Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard and enable the option Use the Print screen key to open screen capture.

Windows key + Print Screen

To capture the entire screen and automatically save the capture, press a key combination Windows + Print Screen. The screen will darken briefly to indicate that you have just taken a photo, and the photo will be saved in a folder Pictures > Screenshots.

Alt + Print Screen

To take a snapshot of the active window, use a keyboard shortcut Alt + PrtScn. This will capture the open window and copy the image to the clipboard. You need to open the photo in a photo editor to save it.

If your computer doesn’t have a PrtScn key, don’t worry, Microsoft has another shortcut for you. You can press Fn + Windows key + spacebar to capture the entire screen. The captured photo will then be saved to the folder Pictures > Screenshots.

Game bar

You can use the Game bar to take screenshots, whether you’re playing a game or not. First, you need to enable Game bar in settings by making sure the “Record game clips, screenshots and broadcasts using Game bar“. Once activated, press the key Windows + G to open the Game bar. Here, you can click the photo button on the Game bar or use the default keyboard shortcut Windows + Alt + PrtScn to capture the entire screen. To set up a separate photo shortcut for the Game bar, go to Settings > Gaming > Game bar.

Windows logo + volume down button

If you’re using a Microsoft Surface device, you can use physical buttons (or more accurately, physical-feeling buttons) to take a screenshot of the entire screen — similar to how you take a screenshot on a regular phone or tablet. To do this, hold down the touch button with the Windows icon on the bottom edge of the Surface screen, and press the volume down button (physical button) on the side of the device. The screen will darken briefly and the photo will be automatically saved to a folder Pictures > Screenshots.