Screen Capture for Windows

On Windows operating systems, screen capture is simple, but there aren't as many options as there are on the Macintosh.

There are two options for screen capturing in Windows. Both of these copy a picture of the screen to the Clipboard, and then must be pasted in another program to be viewed, edited, or saved. The first method will copy the whole desktop (the entire visible screen) and the second method will copy just the active window (the part of the screen containing the program you are currently using).

Capturing the Entire Desktop

1. Make your desktop how you want it to appear in the picture, and press the [Print Screen] key, located in the upper-right corner of the keyboard above the arrow keys. This will copy the contents of the screen to your Clipboard, a hidden place in memory that stores any information that has been recently copied.
2. Open up any image editing program (such as Microsoft Paint or Adobe Photoshop), and paste the image by using the Paste shortcut (hold the [Ctrl] button, and press [V]) or by choosing the Paste option under the Edit menu.
3. Edit your image as necessary, and save it when you are finished.

Capturing the Active Window

1. Make your current active window how you want it to appear in your picture, hold down the [Alt] key and press the [Print Screen] key. This action will copy the contents of the window to the Clipboard.
2. Open up any image editing program (such as Microsoft Paint or Adobe Photoshop), and paste the image by using the Paste shortcut (hold the [Ctrl] button, and press [V]) or by choosing the Paste option under the Edit menu.
3. Edit your image as necessary, and save it when you are finished.