How to screenshot on Windows?

The fastest way to take a screenshot on Windows 10 or 11 is pressing Windows key + Shift + S. This opens the Snipping Tool overlay, dims the screen, and lets you drag a rectangle around whatever you want to capture. The screenshot goes straight to your clipboard — paste it into an email, document, or chat with Ctrl+V.

For a full-screen capture, press Windows key + Print Screen. Your screen will briefly dim and the screenshot saves automatically as a PNG file in your Pictures folder under Screenshots. This captures everything on your primary monitor only; if you have multiple monitors, it captures just the active one.

The older Print Screen key alone still works — it copies the entire screen to your clipboard without saving a file. Alt + Print Screen captures only the active window, also to the clipboard. On some laptops, you need to hold the Fn key at the same time.

Windows 11’s Snipping Tool also has a built-in delay timer (3, 5, or 10 seconds) for capturing dropdown menus or tooltips that disappear when you click.