How to take a screenshot on Windows

Screenshots are perfect for sharing a quick question in Teams or adding evidence to a report. Windows has a built-in shortcut that lets you capture exactly the area you need.

Step by step

1. Press Windows key+Shift+S. The screen dims and a small toolbar appears.
2. Choose rectangle, freeform, window or full screen, then drag over the area you want.
3. The screenshot is copied to your clipboard. Paste it into Teams, Outlook, Word or PowerPoint with Ctrl+V.
4. Click the notification that appears to annotate or save it.

Tips & troubleshooting

• Press Print Screen to capture the whole screen (on Windows 11 it may open the Snipping Tool instead).
• Alt+Print Screen captures only the active window.
• Windows key+V opens clipboard history, so you can paste earlier screenshots too.

Every screenshot shortcut in Windows

• Windows key+Shift+S: choose an area, window or the full screen. The image goes to the clipboard.
• Print Screen: copies the whole screen. On Windows 11 it can be set to open the Snipping Tool instead, under Settings, Accessibility, Keyboard.
• Alt+Print Screen: copies only the active window.
• Windows key+Print Screen: captures the whole screen and saves it straight to a file.
• Windows key+Shift+R: records a video of part of the screen, on Windows 11.

Where screenshots go

Windows key+Shift+S copies to the clipboard, and on Windows 11 the Snipping Tool also saves a copy automatically in Pictures, Screenshots. Windows key+Print Screen saves to the same folder. Plain Print Screen and Alt+Print Screen go to the clipboard only, so paste them somewhere before copying anything else. Turn on clipboard history with Windows key+V and earlier captures stay available.

Capture things that disappear

Menus and tooltips close when you press a key, so they are hard to catch. Open the Snipping Tool app from the Start menu, set a delay of 3, 5 or 10 seconds, click New, and open the menu while the timer counts down. The capture starts with the menu still showing.

After the capture

• Click the notification to open the Snipping Tool editor, where you can crop, highlight and draw arrows.
• On Windows 11, Text actions in the editor copies the text out of a screenshot and can redact email addresses and phone numbers.
• Paste straight into a Teams chat, an Outlook email or a document with Ctrl+V. There is no need to save a file first.
• In Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Insert, Screenshot grabs any open window without leaving the app.
• Check the edges before you send. Screenshots often catch other tabs, notifications and names you did not mean to share.