Guides
Get what you need off your screen
Short, complete answers to the screen tasks people search for most — with the free tools already in Windows first, and ScreenFeel where it is genuinely faster.
How to copy text from an image or screenshot on Windows
On Windows 11, press Win+Shift+S and either choose Text extractor in the capture bar (on recent versions of Snipping Tool) or capture the area, open it in Snipping Tool and choose Text actions, then Copy all text. On Windows 10 or 11, the free PowerToys Text Extractor (Win+Shift+T) copies the text in any area you drag straight to the clipboard. For tables, code, handwriting, or text you also want translated or explained, an AI reader such as ScreenFeel keeps the layout and reads what plain OCR misses.
How to get Circle to Search on a Windows PC
Circle to Search is a Google feature for Android phones, and there is no Windows version. The closest equivalents on a PC are Google's own app for Windows, whose built-in Lens selects anything on screen after Alt+Space (English only); Google Lens inside Chrome for web pages; Click to Do on Copilot+ PCs; and ScreenFeel, which selects a region of any app on any Windows 10 or 11 PC with Print Screen and explains it.
How to translate a screenshot, or any text on your screen
To translate a screenshot for free, open translate.google.com, choose the Images tab and upload or drop the picture. To translate text in a Windows app without saving a file first, copy it with Snipping Tool's Text actions or PowerToys Text Extractor and paste it into any translator. Or use an AI screen translator such as ScreenFeel: press Print Screen, select the text and choose Translate, which keeps headings, tables and lists in place.
How to turn a screenshot of a table into Excel
In Excel for Microsoft 365, open the Data tab, choose From Picture, and give it the image from a file or the clipboard; Excel recognises the table, lets you review each cell, and inserts it. For a table or a chart that is on screen in another app, an AI reader such as ScreenFeel's To data lens returns the rows as a table and as CSV you can paste into any spreadsheet.
How to screenshot part of your screen on Windows
Press Win+Shift+S, then drag a rectangle: the selection is copied to the clipboard, and clicking the notification opens it in Snipping Tool (Snip & Sketch on Windows 10) to save or mark up. On current Windows 11 builds the Print Screen key opens the same selection. Alt+Print Screen copies just the active window, and Win+Print Screen saves the whole screen to Pictures → Screenshots.
How to redact a screenshot so it stays redacted
Cover the whole sensitive area with a solid, opaque box, then share a newly exported, flattened image — never the original or an editable file. Cropping is not deletion: in 2023 a flaw in Windows Snipping Tool, known as aCropalypse, left cropped-out pixels inside saved files. Researchers have reversed pixelated text, so keep pixelation and blur for faces and long passages, not passwords — and change any key that was ever visible.
How to highlight your cursor and draw on screen while screen sharing
For a bigger, coloured pointer, open Settings → Accessibility → Mouse pointer and touch. For click highlights and a spotlight, the free PowerToys add Mouse Highlighter and Find My Mouse. To draw over any app during a Teams, Zoom or Meet share, use Microsoft's free ZoomIt or ScreenFeel's presenter tools: a cursor glow, boxes, arrows and ink that fades by itself, drawn over everything you share.
How to solve a maths problem from a screenshot on your PC
Phone apps like Photomath work from the camera, so on a PC the problem has to come off the screen instead. For a problem on a web page, Google Lens in Chrome can search it: right-click, then Search with Google Lens. For worked steps on any screen — a PDF, a slide, a learning platform — ScreenFeel's Solve lens restates the problem, works through it in numbered steps and gives the final answer, or checks a solution you already have.
How to get an error message explained from a screenshot
Get the exact text of the error first and search it in quotes; for Windows errors, the hexadecimal code such as 0x80070005 is the most searchable part. If the text cannot be selected, capture it: ScreenFeel's Fix error lens reads an error dialog, terminal or stack trace in any app and returns the likely cause, the specific file and line where visible, and the fix as steps or code. Check the screenshot for keys and tokens before you share it anywhere.
The best Snipping Tool alternatives for Windows
For many people Snipping Tool is enough: it captures regions, windows and the full screen, records video, and on Windows 11 copies text out of captures. Choose ShareX for free, open-source automation; Greenshot for a light, free editor; Snagit for polished documentation, as a paid subscription; Flameshot for a simple editor that also runs on Linux and macOS. Choose ScreenFeel if you want screenshots read as well as taken — text, tables, errors and translations — with a searchable local library.
The best AI screenshot tools for Windows
Built into Windows, Copilot can look at a window you share with it, and Click to Do acts on anything on screen, but only on Copilot+ PCs. ChatGPT's desktop app can send the window in front of you to a chat, and Google's Lens sees what you select in Chrome or, through the Google app for Windows, anywhere on screen. Cluely and Highlight run as always-available assistants. ScreenFeel is the one built around private capture: any app, any Windows 10 or 11 PC, captures kept on your PC, and one image sent only when you ask.
Is it safe to send screenshots to an AI chatbot?
Sending a screenshot to an AI chatbot is safe enough when you control what is in the image and know what the service does with it. Consumer AI chats keep uploads with your chat history, and ChatGPT and Gemini use personal conversations to improve their models unless you switch that off; check the setting before you upload. Crop to what matters, redact names, keys and numbers, and prefer a tool that sends one image only when you ask, to a model that keeps nothing.
How to turn screenshots into a step-by-step guide
Capture each step, then either paste the screenshots into a document and write the instructions yourself, record the whole process with a tool such as Scribe or Tango that captures every click as you work, or let ScreenFeel's Make a guide lens write it from two to eight screenshots you already have: one numbered step per image, naming the real buttons and labels, ready to copy as Markdown.
How to copy text from a video
Pause the video on a sharp frame, then copy the text off the screen: on Windows 11, capture it with Win+Shift+S and use Snipping Tool's Text actions; on Windows 10 or 11, PowerToys Text Extractor (Win+Shift+T) copies whatever you drag over. For code, slides or tables, ScreenFeel's Grab code, Read text and To data lenses keep the indentation and layout. If you need everything that is said rather than shown, open the video's transcript instead.
How to compare two screenshots and find what changed
For pixel-level changes, put one screenshot over the other in an image editor and set the top layer's blend mode to Difference: everything identical turns black, and what changed lights up. To know what changed in words — which value, label or element — ScreenFeel's Compare lens takes two captures and lists every difference, most important first, quoting old and new values while ignoring noise such as cursor position and compression.
Next time, it is one key
ScreenFeel answers the Print Screen key on Windows 10 and 11. Select anything in any app, then copy it, translate it or ask about it. Capturing is free forever; the AI lenses come with a free monthly allowance.
Written by the team that makes ScreenFeel. We list the free tools that come with Windows first, because for many people they are enough — and we update each guide when the tools it names change.