How to screenshot part of your screen on Windows
The short answer
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.
Every built-in shortcut
- Win+Shift+S — opens the capture bar: rectangle, freeform, window or full screen. The result goes to the clipboard.
- Win+Shift+R — on Windows 11, records a video of part of the screen with Snipping Tool, saved to Videos → Screen Recordings.
- Print Screen — on Windows 11, opens the same capture bar by default. On Windows 10, or with that setting off, it copies the whole screen to the clipboard.
- Alt+Print Screen — copies the active window to the clipboard.
- Win+Print Screen — saves the whole screen as a PNG in Pictures → Screenshots, and dims the screen briefly to show it worked.
- Win+Alt+Print Screen — saves the active window via the Xbox Game Bar into Videos → Captures. Useful in games.
Make Print Screen open the tool you want
On Windows 11 the setting lives in Settings → Accessibility → Keyboard: the switch that lets the Print screen key open Snipping Tool (its exact wording varies between Windows versions). Leave it on and Print Screen opens Snipping Tool's capture bar. Turn it off and the key copies the whole screen again — and a third-party screenshot app can claim it instead. On Windows 10 the same switch is under Settings → Ease of Access → Keyboard, as Print Screen shortcut.
If a screenshot app says it cannot register Print Screen, this setting is usually why: Windows keeps the key for Snipping Tool while it is on. Turn it off and restart the app.
Where your screenshots go
- Clipboard: Win+Shift+S, Alt+Print Screen and Print Screen (with the Windows 11 setting off). Paste with Ctrl+V; press Win+V to see recent clipboard items, once clipboard history is switched on.
- Pictures → Screenshots: Win+Print Screen, and Snipping Tool captures when its automatic saving is on (the default on recent versions).
- Videos → Captures: anything taken with the Xbox Game Bar.
Region, window or full screen?
Capture as little as you can. A region is smaller to send, quicker to read and shows nothing you did not mean to share — no notifications, no other tabs, no taskbar clock. Use a window capture for documentation, where the window frame tells the reader which app they are looking at, and a full-screen capture only when the relationship between windows is the point.
A screenshot app that also reads what you captured
ScreenFeel can answer the Print Screen key and replaces the capture bar with three modes: a region of any display drawn against a frozen preview, with a magnifier that shows the exact pixel and its hex colour; any window, picked from a live thumbnail grid; or the whole screen under the cursor. Every monitor gets its own overlay at native resolution.
Every capture is named the moment it is taken and kept in a local library you can search — including the text inside images, once a lens has read it. Studio annotates and redacts, and the lenses copy text, translate, explain or turn a table into data. Capturing, editing and the library are free, with no account.
Questions people also ask
Why does Print Screen open Snipping Tool?
Windows 11 turned this on by default. Go to Settings → Accessibility → Keyboard and switch off the option that lets the Print screen key open Snipping Tool, to get the old full-screen copy back or to let another screenshot app use the key.
How do I screenshot only one window?
Click the window so it is active and press Alt+Print Screen; the window is copied to the clipboard. With Win+Shift+S you can also choose window mode in the capture bar and click the window you want.
How do I take a screenshot of just one monitor?
Use Win+Shift+S and choose rectangle mode to drag over one display, or use a tool that captures the screen under the cursor. With that Windows 11 setting off, or on Windows 10, plain Print Screen copies every monitor at once.