Welcome!
So, you want to take a screenshot of your Windows 11 system. There are a number of different methods, each of which provide vastly different results. In this article, we will discuss how to take screenshots on Windows 11.
I’ve also put this post on Medium, in case you prefer reading over there!
Whether you wan to capture the entire screen or just a part of your screen, this guide will help you navigate the different options available to you.
Reasons
There’s a ton! You might need to send a screenshot over a company messaging platform, such as Teams or Slack. You might need to take a snippet from an important document for easy referencing later on. The reasons, quite frankly, can go on forever. No matter the reason, lets jump into How To Take Screenshots on Windows 11.
We’ll provide multiple methods for taking screenshots too, whether you want a keyboard shortcut, full-blown application and everything in-between.
How To Take Screenshots on Windows 11
1 – Entire Screen
By far, the easiest way to capture a screenshot of the entire screen. This includes every screen attached to the system, is to use the following keyboard shortcut: PrtSc.
This is typically a separate key on your keyboard, in the top right corner. If you’re keyboard is fancy, it might even say the full Print Screen, like mine.
After pressing the PrtSc button, the screenshot will be saved to your clipboard, meaning you can simply paste it into most applications for easy sending. Although you don’t recieve any short of notification confirming the screenshot has been taken, if you use a clipboard manager, then the screenshot will remain in the clipboard’s history until you restart your system.
Tip! Once you have used the PrtSc button, you can also use Ctrl+V to easily paste your screenshot. This saves you having to right-click and paste which is a slightly longer process.
2 – Entire Screen + Save File
This method is still very simple, building from the first option. You can use the Windows+PrtSc keys in unison so that a screenshot is both generated to your clipboard and to your Pictures -> Screenshots folder.
This is really handy if you need a physical file to drag and drop or save for longer term storage. Managing your clipboard for long term data is just not feasible, and really not what it’s designed for.
Sometimes, this will flash your entire screen so that you know a screenshot has been taken. And occasionally, asks where you would like the screenshot to be saved.
3 – Part Of Screen
The first two methods described above are only capable of taking screenshots of the entire screen. This isn’t always what you want though. So this method provides a solution for taking a screenshot of only part of your screen.
Super handy if you only have a small area you want to save for later!
Built into Windows 11, is the option to press Win + Shift + S
This will result in your screen flashing and a small tool menu appearing at the top of the screen. This menu allows you to take partial screenshots in a number of different shapes and sizes. Currently, the options available are below:
- Rectangle
- FreeForm
- Window Grab
- Full-Screen
You should know, that once a screenshot if taken, it will be saved to your clipboard. Exact same as method 1 above.
However, if you click on the Snipping Tool preview that appears at the bottom of the screen after taking the screenshot, you’ll find more options to edit the screenshots and then save it to a file on your system.
4 – Delayed Screenshots
Our final offering is from Snipping Tool again, and it allows you to take screenshots but this time with a time delay.
To use this, type into your Windows search bar ‘Snipping Tool‘. You should get a nice tool bar that pops up on your screen. In there, you can see a timer icon. You have the option to set a 3 second, 5 second and a 10 second delay.
So once you press the ‘Take screenshot’ button, you have a certain amount of time to pull up any hover forms or special items that usually disappear when you click away.
I know I’ve found this option SUPER useful for screenshotting processing and menus in programs and websites. As these menus are often based on the presence of your mouse and once you click away to take a screenshot, they disappear, which can be very frustrating unless you use the timer options.
Note: you can also start up this option by using Win + Shift + S, this is the same keyboard shortcut found in method 3 as they both use the Snipping Tool program to take the screenshots.
5 – 3rd Party Software
Finally, you could use third party software such as ShareX. Using a third party program, usually allows for greater control and capabilities when taking and editing screenshots.
For example, ShareX allows you to setup custom hotkeys, destinations, workflows and sharing options. Plus, many of these tools are completely free to download and use.
ShareX is also open source which if that matters to you, might sway your decision to this particular program.
Conclusion
Well that’s all folks. I’ve given you plenty of options to chose from when it comes to taking screenshots on Windows 11.
I hope you found this article useful, if you did make sure to comment and let me know!
Enjoy! 🎉
