As a software reviewer at PCMag, snapping screenshots is something I need to do many times each day. There’s no better way of showing readers how a program actually looks in operation. I mostly review Windows software, so I’m familiar with the various ways to capture screens on that operating system. Nearly every computer user occasionally needs to take a screenshot, if only to share what they’re seeing on the screen with a colleague or external business.
It’s astonishing how long it has taken to perfect this simple capability. Windows has had screen-printing capabilities since the first PCs in the 1980s (their text-based option differed from today’s raster screenshots). Windows 10 introduced new ways to take screenshots, like using Snip & Sketch, and taking screenshots in Windows 11 gets even smarter with the Snipping Tool. For all the ins and outs of the procedures on Microsoft's latest OS, read How to Take Screenshots in Windows 11.
But here we're concerned with screenshots in Windows 10. Below, I walk you through the several ways to capture the Windows 10 PC screen so that you can make an informed decision on which method works best for you.
Use Print Screen Key With OneDrive
This is one of the best things ever to hit screenshots in Windows, having arrived in 2015. As with the plain old Print Screen key, you can save the entire screen or the active window with Print Screen or Alt-Print Screen, respectively. But after you go to OneDrive’s Settings panel and choose Automatically Save Screenshots / Capture to OneDrive from the Backup tab, you’re saved from having to open an imaging app, pasting from the clipboard, and then saving the file. Hit Print Screen, and you’ve got an image file saved, all in one step.
Windows’ Action Center (the slide-out panel on the right side of the screen) notifies you that your shot was saved, and you can click on the notification to take you right to the folder where it’s saved. If you use this method a lot, you’ll probably want more cloud storage than just the free 5GB. An Office 365 account (starting at $6.99 per month) gets you 1TB, as well as all the famous productivity applications.
Use Snagit
Another way to take screenshots is by using a third-party tool. Our favorite screenshot app at PCMag is SnagitSnagit. Snagit has at least one major benefit over Windows’ built-in screenshot tools: You can snap away and all your shots remain in the utility’s repository, available at any time you might need them later. It’s the least disruptive way to shoot screens while continuing your work. After you’re ready to deal with the shots, you can browse the history and save the images you want to the folder of your choice.Snagit also includes advanced tools like video and scrolling window screenshot tools. It offers handy image-editing and drawing tools, including brightness, arrows, text overlay, and borders. The downside? A Snagit license will set you back $49.95, but for those who need its advanced functionality, it’s worth the money.
Use Shift-Windows Key-S and Snip & Sketch
After many years of using Snagit (see below), this has become my primary screenshot method. Hit the Shift-Windows Key-S keyboard combo, and you have a choice of shooting the full screen, a rectangular selection, a freehand selection, or an individual program window. An alternative way to invoke Snip & Sketch is via the Action Center's Screen snip button.
After hitting this keyboard shortcut, you momentarily see a small thumbnail panel notification at lower right that says Snip Saved to Clipboard. Tap this to open the Snip & Sketch window. In this, you can mark up the image with a pen, pencil, highlighter, eraser, ruler, and cropping tool. Then you can save the image to a folder of your choice, or share it using the standard Windows Share menu. That lets you send the image to Instagram, Messenger, Mail, or any other app that accepts the file type. It also lets you send it to a nearby PC with Nearby Sharing enabled.
A couple things I wish Snip & Sketch had are text overlay and basic shapes, including the ever-useful arrow. If you only want to use this tool, you can go into Windows’ Settings app and choose Ease of Access > Keyboard and choose Use the PrtSc Button to Open Screen Snipping. Note that this requires restarting Windows.
Use the Windows Key-Print Screen Shortcut
This method was introduced with Windows 8 but it still works in Windows 10. It’s simpler than most of the other methods in this story, and on tablets like the Surface Pro, you invoke this functionality by pressing Volume Down and Power button at the same time. This or Windows Key-Print Screen key combo will momentarily darken the screen to show you it worked, and instantly save a PNG image file to your Pictures > Screenshots folder.
Alt-Windows Key-Print Screen saves just the active window, but, interestingly, this uses the Windows Game Bar (see next slide) functionality, saving your screenshot to your Videos/Captures folder. Both of these methods are good if you want instant saving without having to bother with the Clipboard or OneDrive cloud storage.
Use the Windows Game Bar
Windows Key-G opens the Game bar, which includes an icon looking like a camera in its Broadcast & capture section. Tap that, and your screenshot is saved (somewhat counterintuitively) to the Videos/Captures folder under your main user folder.
How to Take a Screenshot on Any Device
You'll want to snap screenshots on your smartphone and other devices besides your Windows PC. Our walk-through of How to Take a Screenshot on Any Device covers the process used by all of your non-PC gadgets with screens.
Double-Click Your Surface Pen
If you’re on a digital-inking-capable touch-screen PC like a Surface Pro, you can take a screenshot of your full screen simply by double clicking on the back button on a Surface Pen. This opens Snip and Sketch with the full screenshot ready for annotating, editing, and sharing.
Use the Snipping Tool
Snipping Tool remains in Windows 10, though it’s been superseded by Snip & Sketch. If you’re clinging to Windows 7, you won’t have the option to use Snip & Sketch (detailed above), so Snipping Tool is for you. To use this, you'll need to actually run the utility; typing "snipping" in the Windows search box at lower left and tapping Snipping Tool gets you started.Like Snip & Sketch, Snipping Tool lets you capture free-from or rectangular selections or the full window or full screen. You can time-delay a screenshot, as well, from one to five seconds. It also lets you mark up your image with a pen or highlighter. Snip & Sketch (as noted above) does all that and adds cropping, a ruler, and a pencil.
Use the Print Screen Key With Clipboard
This is the longtime classic method of screenshotting in Windows 10. It’s especially useful for shooting apps that change appearance when you hit a keyboard combination. Often a menu will collapse as soon as you tap a shift key. Hitting the Print Screen or PrtSc key copies the entire screen to the Clipboard; adding Alt together with Print Screen copies the active window rectangle only.
You do need to take extra steps to open and save your image in an app that deals with images, such as Paint, Paint 3D, or even Photoshop (unless you take advantage of the next tip). Simply paste with Ctrl-V when you’re in a new document in one of those apps, and then you can go to town with editing, and finally, save the image to the folder of your choice.