How to get an error message explained from a screenshot
The short answer
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.
Step 1: get the exact text
Many Windows error dialogs let you press Ctrl+C to copy their whole message, even though there is no visible copy button. In a terminal, select the lines and copy them. When neither works — a crash dialog that vanishes, a remote desktop, an app that blocks selection — capture it and pull the text out with Snipping Tool's Text actions or PowerToys Text Extractor.
Step 2: search it the right way
- Search the stable part. Error codes, exception names and the fixed part of the message — not your file paths, user name or timestamps.
- Use quotes around the exact message so results match it word for word.
- Add the product and version. The same message means different things in different releases.
- Start from the top of your own code. In a stack trace, the first frame in your code usually matters more than the framework frames above or below it.
Step 3: let the whole screen be read
An error message is rarely the whole story. The command that ran, the line above the red one, the version in the title bar and the file open in the editor all change the diagnosis — and a search box only sees what you type into it. Capturing the whole relevant area keeps that context.
ScreenFeel's Fix error lens answers in a fixed shape every time: the error restated in one plain sentence; the most likely cause, naming the file and line from the trace where visible; the fix, as a code block when code is the answer or as numbered steps when it is not; and the next most likely cause if the first is wrong. It works in any app — an IDE, a terminal, a CI page in a browser, a remote session — because the capture does.
Before you paste an error anywhere: check it for secrets
Error output is one of the most common places credentials leak. Connection strings, API keys, bearer tokens, internal host names and customer data end up in logs and traces, and from there in screenshots posted to chats, tickets and forums.
Before any lens runs, ScreenFeel checks the text it has already read on your PC, with no network call, for key-, token- and card-shaped strings. The Find secrets lens goes further and boxes every finding so you can redact it before the image goes anywhere else.
Questions people also ask
Can an AI explain an error from a screenshot?
Yes. Vision-capable AI models read error dialogs, terminals and stack traces from images. What matters is what else is in the image and what the service keeps; ScreenFeel sends only the region you capture, when you ask, to a model that keeps nothing.
What if the error is in a language I do not read?
ScreenFeel's lenses answer in your language, so Fix error explains a German or Japanese error message in English if English is your language. The Translate lens gives you a straight translation of the message instead.
How do I copy the text of a Windows error dialog?
Click the dialog and press Ctrl+C; most standard Windows message boxes copy their title, text and buttons to the clipboard even without a copy button. If that does nothing, capture the dialog and use a text-recognition tool.