Taking screenshots on a laptop is just as easy as taking screenshots on your smartphone. All you have to do is press a couple of keys.
However, you will be surprised to know that there are more ways to capture screenshots on a laptop.
In this guide, we will be exploring multiple ways to capture screenshots on a laptop, regardless of which laptop you are using. Let’s discuss each of these methods in detail.
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Contents
Capturing Screenshots on a Laptop
To capture a screenshot on your laptop, all you have to do is use a shortcut key command and a screenshot of the entire screen.
Simply press the “Windows Logo Key + Prnt Scrn (Print Screen)” keys together, and a screenshot of the screen will be taken and copied to the clipboard.
In Windows 10 and 11, the screenshot will be automatically saved as well in the Pictures folder in your User section. So, you won’t have to go through the usual hassle of pasting the copied screen and then saving it.
Some other shortcut commands offer additional screenshotting features.
If have opened multiple windows on your laptop and want to capture all of them, all you have to do is press the “Prnt Scrn” key and the image will be automatically copied to the clipboard.
You can directly paste this image into a Word document, email, or on your WhatsApp if you have it opened on your laptop and send it.
Adding to this, there is one more feature. If you only want to capture the active window on the screen and not the whole screen, you can do it as well using a shortcut key command.
For this purpose, you will have to press “Alt + Prnt Scrn” and the picture of the active window will be copied to the clipboard. You can paste it from the clipboard to your desired place or save it.
Unfortunately, the automatic save function is only enabled for the screenshot of the entire screen or the first command. The picture will not be automatically saved for the latter two.
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How To Capture A Part of Screen? – Using Snipping Tool on Windows
Let’s say you want to capture a part of the screen that is not an entire active window, then you will have to use the Snipping Tool.
It is a built-in software that comes with Windows 10 and 11. Hence, you don’t have to worry about downloading any additional third-party applications or software for this purpose.
Simply go to the Start Menu and search for Snipping Tool. Once you open it, you can customize the preferences and directly take a snapshot of the area you want to capture.
The snipping tool provides you with multiple customization options and also allows you to take delayed screenshots. Hence, instead of taking a picture of the whole screen and then editing it, you can just capture the portion you want to capture.
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Snip & Sketch – An Advanced & More Efficient Tool
Windows 10 has recently introduced another tool that comes with more features than the Snipping Tool and has proven to be quite efficient.
Just like the snipping tool, you can use this program to capture screenshots, capture parts of the screen, and do so much more.
In addition to basic snipping features, the tool also provides you the ability to annotate the screenshots and share them as well.
I believe both of these tools are quite advantageous to the users since they both come pre-installed in the system and you don’t have to download them separately.
When you install Windows 10 or 11, these software tools will already be available in the Start Menu.
So, in addition to taking screenshots with shortcut key commands, you can use these tools to efficiently capture parts of the screen and use them to your advantage.
How To Screenshot In A 2-in-1 Laptop? – Tablet Version
If you are using a two-in-one laptop that is detachable, you won’t be able to use the shortcut key command when you have detached the tablet.
Hence, there is another way to take screenshots on that laptop. It’s similar to smartphones and tablets.
All you have to do is press the Power key and the Volume Down button together and viola, you will have a screenshot.
The screenshot will be saved at the default location. You can change the locations from settings or preferences.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is capturing screenshots on a laptop difficult?
No, you can take screenshots on a laptop just as easily as you would take them on your smartphone. All you have to do is use a shortcut key command to capture the whole screen or use a snipping tool to capture a part of the screen.
Yes, you can capture all opened windows on the screen with just a press of the “Prnt Scrn” button. However, the screenshot will not be saved in the form of a file and will only be copied to the clipboard. You can paste it into any document using the paste command.
Can I just capture the active window instead of the whole screen?
To capture only the active window on the screen, you don’t need the snipping tool or any other application. You can use the shortcut command “Alt + Prnt Scrn” and it will take a screenshot of only the active screen.
Wrapping Up!
Summing it all up, capturing screenshots on a laptop is just as easy as capturing them on the phone. On a laptop, you have better flexibility and also more options when taking screenshots.
You can take quick screenshots of part of the screen or just edit them as you are taking them by using advanced tools that are pre-installed in Windows 10 and 11.