How to Take A Screenshot On A Windows Computer

If you own a Microsoft Windows PC, or personal computer, it is very easy to take a screenshot of anything you can display on your monitor. Here is How To Take A Screenshot On A Windows Computer.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• PC Computer

1. To start with, what is a screenshot? A screenshot is like taking a picture of what you see on your computer's screen, only you don't use a camera - your computer does it electronically and saves it as an image file. You can take a screenshot "picture" of any web page you are looking at, any program page you have open, or even your computer's desktop if you want to.
   
   When you take the screenshot it will be temporarily saved to the computer's clipboard memory. From there, the screen image you have captured can be pasted into virtually any type of image-editing program. If you don't have a commercial image program, most Windows-based PC's have the Paint program as standard equipment, which can be used to edit your screenshots and save them permanently to your hard drive.

2. 
    
   A Screenshot Will Copy Everything You See On Your Monitor

   It is very easy to take a screenshot on a Windows PC computer. First, get an image on your screen that you want to copy. Keep in mind that a screenshot will save everything you see on your screen. If you are viewing a web page, your screenshot will show your web browser's address bar and toolbars as well as the content on the page. This is not a problem, as you can edit these out later if you need to.

3. 
    
   The Print Screen Key Is Normally Located Near The Top Right Of The Keyboard

   To copy the screen, you will need to look on your keyboard and locate the Print Screen key. It is normally located in the top row of keys, to the right of the Function keys. It might actually say, "Print Screen", but more than likely it will be abbreviated to read, "Prt Sc" or "Prt Scr".
   
   To take the actual screenshot using most keyboards, you will first press and hold the Shift key and then press the Print Screen key. Release both keys, and your screenshot has been taken! A temporary image of the screen is now stored on the computer's clipboard.
   
   This may operate a little differently on some computer keyboards, particularly laptops. For example, you may have to hold down a Function key located near the Shift key and then press the Print Screen key to copy the screen.

4. 
    
   This Is An Edited Screenshot Taken From The Image In Step 2

   To actually view and edit the screenshot you just took, you will need to open up an image editing program on your computer. If you don't have a commercial program to use, you can always use the Paint program mentioned in Step 1. You can find the Paint program by going to Start in the lower left of your computer screen, click on Programs, Click on Accessories, and then click on Paint.
   
   To see your image in Paint, hold down the "ctrl" key and press "v", go to Paint's Edit menu and click on Paste, or right-click in Paint's work area and then click on Paste. Your screenshot is now showing in the Paint program's work area where you can edit it and then save it to your computer.
   
   You can use any image editing program in the same way to view and edit your screenshot.

Tips & Warnings

• Screenshots are useful for capturing portions of a web page or program page that you need to save for future reference.
• Use an image program to edit the screen image. Resize the image and crop out parts of the image that you don't need.

[aerialacro]

on 8/7/2009 I have never done a screenshot! Thanks!

[dorigillman]

on 7/27/2009 great instructions on taking screens hots.

[Psalmist4M]

on 7/26/2009 Thank you for the article on How to Take A Screenshot On A Windows Computer. 5*s

[chrisanimelo444]

on 7/26/2009 Great article. Screenshots comes in handy. 5*

[killadutch08]

on 7/26/2009 5*s.