Windows computers have been a staple of the modern world for a long time now, and they’ve come a long way from the days of Windows 95. With that said, these computer systems still have the same features that they’ve always had – including taking screenshots.
A screenshot is just what it sounds like. Screenshotting your computer screen captures an image of any program or website you’re looking at on your monitor, to use as part of your project, show someone else how to do something on their computer or just document something if need be.
If you need to take a screenshot on your laptop and you have no idea how to do it, then this tutorial is for you! This tutorial will teach you the basics of taking screenshots on your Windows laptop.
While taking a screenshot on your phone is more widely known and considerably easier, a lot of people have trouble taking a screenshot on their laptops. Much to your surprise, it is rather easy to take screenshots on your laptop and there are more than one way of doing so.
So to help you take a screenshot of your laptop screen, here are 5 ways you can take a screenshot on a windows laptop.
How To Take a Screenshot On Windows Laptop
The easiest and fastest way to take a screenshot on your Windows laptop is to press Print Screen on your keyboard. You will find that the Print Screen button is on the keyboard of most laptops, usually right next to the Esc button.
There are also buttons that say Screenshot, Print Screen and PrtScn, however, those are just different words for the same thing.
Other Methods
- Windows + PrtSc
- Snipping Tool/ Snip & Sketch
- Screen Snip (Action Center)
- XBOX Game Bar
- Third Party Screenshot Apps
Windows + PrtSc
The easiest yet most overlooked way of taking a screenshot on a windows laptop is the windows + PrtSc command. It is what it says, you have to press the keys “windows” and “PrtSc” together and your laptop will take a screenshot of your current screen.
This method of taking a screenshot does not offer you the option to immediately edit the screenshot you took, rather gets automatically saved in the pictures folder. You can edit it if needed by going to the file location.
This method is very convenient and requires no software or application. Just with the press of two keys you can take a screenshot just like on your smartphones. This feature is available in almost all windows laptops, at least the ones manufactured during and after the 2010s.
Snipping Tool/ Snip & Sketch
Before the above method was introduced, snipping tool was a thing. It was introduced first in Windows 7, and was used to take screenshots on computers and laptops, primarily.
This is a build-in Windows application that lets you take snippets of your screen or a screenshot of the entire screen, whichever you desire. You can select the area you want to capture and then edit it if you want. You can draw, add text, crop the screenshot, and more using this tool.
Recently, it was upgraded to Snip and Sketch and many new features were added to it as well. The interface is more modern now and taking a screenshot using is has become more convenient.
So if you want, you can go old school and take screenshots on your laptop using the snipping tool or snip and sketch.
Screen Snip (Action Center)
Another upgrade that was received on Windows 10 was the addition of the screen snip toggle in the action center. Click on the action center menu and you will see a bunch of options like location, battery saver, night light, airplane mode, Bluetooth etc. With those toggles, you will also notice there is a screen snip toggle. When you click on that, your laptop takes a screenshot.
After clicking on the toggle, the screenshot can be seen in the action center where you have to click on it, edit it if necessary and save it from there. We must mention, the snip and sketch tool and the screen snip toggle both require manual saving of the screenshot. If you don’t save it yourself, it will be lost forever.
After you click on the taken screenshot you can see a similar editor interface as the snip and sketch app, where you can edit the screenshot to crop it, rotate it, add markings or text to it, and then save it. You could say it is an extension of that app.
XBOX Game Bar
This one is not exactly for taking regular screenshots. If you are someone who plays Xbox games on your laptop, and wants to take screenshots of your games, the Xbox Game Bar is your best bet.
Turn the Xbox game bar on and use it to take screenshots of your game and even screen record your gameplay. This tool is perfect for gamers who want to share their gaming and stream from their laptop.
The Xbox game bar has a bunch of options. You will see there is a little camera like icon that says “capture”. Clicking on that will take a screenshot of your game. These screenshots can be viewed directly from the game bar and also from your files. They get saved automatically and can be accessed later on without having to save them manually.
Third Party Screenshot Apps
Oh you are still with us? Are the above methods not helping? Oh, you have a much older version of windows on your laptop? Well, do not fret over that, you can still take screenshots from your laptop using third party applications meant for windows.
There are many such apps that you can install into your windows laptop and take screenshots using them. While you wouldn’t need them in the newer versions of windows, you can still install them if you think you need a third party app to get the job done.
There are many such apps that let you take screenshots on windows. Some notable ones are Greenshot, PicPick, ShareX, Lightshot, etc. Some of these apps can be hidden in your systems tray while others need to be opened to use to take screenshots.
Either way, the apps are very useful and come with various useful features and you can definitely use them to take screenshots on your windows laptop.
How To Screenshot On Specific Laptop Models
In this series we have also covered how to take screenshots on specific windows laptops.
The below list will help you find the right way to screenshot for your specific laptop.
- How to take a screenshot on Acer laptops
- How to screenshot on Asus laptop
- How to Take Screenshot on a Toshiba Laptop
- How to Screenshot on HP Laptop without Print Screen button
- How to Screenshot on MSI Laptop
- How To Screenshot on Samsung Laptop
- How To Screenshot on Lenovo Ideapad
- How To Screenshot On A Gateway Laptop
- How To Take Screenshot on HP Laptops
- How to Screenshot on Lenovo Laptop
Final Words
So that was all for the 5 ways in which you can take a screenshot on a windows laptop. Let us know which method you will be using most frequently. We hope this article was helpful to you and we were able to provide adequate information regarding taking a screenshot in windows laptops.
So now you won’t have to worry about losing something you saw on your laptop screen or rush to find your phone to take a picture of the screen. Hope this saves you a lot of time. Have a nice day!