How to Take a Screenshot in Windows Vista
One of the fantastic things about Windows Vista is the ability to take screen shots of whatever is currently on your screen. It's a very handy feature and can prove very useful sometimes. Also, if you're an avid gamer, taking screen shots during those heated action sequences during a video game can be saved, manipulated in your favourite graphics editing software, and being turned into a very unique desktop wallpaper.
To go about taking a screen shot in Windows Vista, all you need to do is press the Print Screen key - or Prnt Scrn as it appears on typical UK keyboards - and this works very similar to when you copy and paste something; When you press Print Screen, an image of your entire screen is copied to the clipboard.
Once you have successfully decided on when to take a screen shot and pressed the Print Screen key, simply boot up your favourite 2D graphics manipulation program; Whether it be: Adobe Photoshop CS3, Corel Paint Shop Pro XI, GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), or even good old fashioned Microsoft Paint which comes with virtually every Windows operating system in history. For those of you who are unfamiliar as to where Microsoft Paint is located: You can access it by clicking on your Start menu and navigating to All Programs > Accessories > Paint. I have also included a screenshot of how to reach Microsoft Paint for the newer Windows Vista users out there:
However if you want to check out one of the more professional graphics programs available, I encourage you to download and try out the free Adobe Photoshop CS 30 day trial (the latest available version at the time of writing this is Adobe Photoshop CS3) located on the official Adobe Photoshop page; You will however be required to register a free account to be eligible to download the trial version of Photoshop CS3. Although it doesn't take five minutes to do so.
There is also a trial version of Paint Shop Pro XI available on the official Corel free software trials page.
Anyway, for this tutorial, I will be saving my screen shot in Paint Shop Pro XI. While I'm aware that a lot of users do not own a copy of Paint Shop Pro XI, the basic premise of producing and saving a screen shot is essentially the same with each and every program listed above. However, I would recommend against saving screen shots in Microsoft Paint simply because I have noticed that each and every image that I save seems to have absolutely terrible quality; Whereas both Photoshop CS3 and Paint Shop Pro XI save images with absolutely top-notch quality each and every time. And with trial versions of both programs available, you don't really have any excuses!
So now it's showtime. I'll assume you've download and installed the Paint Shop Pro XI trial and we'll carry on from there. Boot up Paint Shop Pro XI and provided you have attempted to copy anything else in between pressing the Print Screen key and loading up Paint Shop Pro XI, you can go straight to Edit > Paste As New Image in the upper navigation bar; Or alternatively by pressing the Ctrl + V keys simultaneously on your keyboard.
Hopefully, you will see a screen shot appear in your Paint Shop Pro XI work area. If not, simply press the Print Screen key again and go to Edit > Paste As New Image once more.
As soon as the screen shot appears you can save it by going to File > Save As... and you will be presented will the option to name and save your image.
By default the image will be called something along the lines of Image1.pspimage but please feel free to rename it to anything else you wish, like 'My Screen Shot 1' or something. I'd also recommend changing the file type, too. As the default Paint Shop Pro XI file type will not be a valid file to use as a Windows Vista wallpaper.
Click the drop-down box and select JPG JPEG (*.jpg, *jif, *.jpeg) from the list. The JPG file type is a widely recognized file format that will be recognized by Windows Vista as a valid image type.
Click on Save and you're done! You have just created and saved your very own screenshot!
thanks very helpful!
Not as fast as mac...
On a mac you just press Command-shift-3 and it comes up directly on the desktop... Macs are better then PCs
bullshit they are not
That didn't Help. I need a screenshot on a website.
Thanks so much great help
great stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think you so much 5 stars
Thanks you so much!
This helped a lot. It is much more time consuming that a MAC but thus effective.
didnt work for me when i press PrtScn nnothin g happends nothing goes on to my clip board thre for you fail =)
nvm lol i just figured it out all by myself =) yaaay. all u have to do is press the little fn button next to the ctrl button and then press prt sc and it copies =)
woooow you helped me so much ily <3
aah this helped me like understand how to take a a screen shot, but it's not working for me. i try pressing prt sc and paste it into GIMP but it shows me a message that says nothing in clipboard?so i try with ALT prt sc and it still doesnt work. can you please tell me what im doing wrong?
try ctrl+alt+printscreen
This is another dead end... vista home basic will -not- take a screen shot using the prtsc button.
Im using the regular Microsoft Paint... And i used the 'prt sc' key, and went back to the program, And it didnt paste anything to the clipboard... So it didnt work o.O
I cannot figure out what to do at this point... Im only trying to take a shot of a comment i recieved on myspace :) But yeah... It's not working at all for me.
thanks!!!!
If you have a copy of Microsoft Office >>> OneNote 2007 you can press
Windows logo + s
to take a precise screenshot, which automatically placed in Onenote.
I have vista on the laptop, this didn't help me understand it at all.
Thanks,
That helped alot and alot! This is very quit helpful!
~saeety3421~
On a Vista Laptop you can press FN (next to the ctrl Key) and Prt Sc. Then open up paint or program you are using and right click in the middle of that screen and choose paste as new image. My prt sc key is on the Home Key. I think some may be with the Insert key.
Thank you so much!
This was so helpful.
I've been meaning to find out how to take a screenshot for ages, and now I can.
Thank you !
~~ Mandy
On my pc it only says insert (prt sc) on a button i press it and it doesnt work i am wondering if it is the wrong button but there isnt any thing else on the key board. please help.
hey everyone, after reading "sandy's" comment... it is true for all vista users to use the button FN next to the ctrl along with prt scrn to get a snapshot, and then everything works on the paint :D
I tried this and it didnt work. i don't understand it. Anyway I found a different way to get a screen shot but it doesnt work 100% of the time
Does anyone know where i can download piant on my window vista labtop?
You will most definately have it already, search it in the start menu :)
Thank you - my new laptop wasn't doing prt screens and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why; when it works perfectly on my home pc. The key was the trick - thank you so much!!
sorry, my comment edited out part of the text when it posted. The trick was the fn key. It also works if you do fn, alt and prt sc at the same time to capture just the open window in the screen shot.
Thanks again.
Ya just use the button then try paste twice it works for me
damn...it doesnt work on my laptop! why? i gotta hit Fn + Prnt Scrn but doesnt work!!;(
thanks sandy!! that worked perfectly.. i was getting frusterated because i have read the instructions 5 million times and it still wouldnt work! and finally it did!! thanks a bunch
On my notebook on windows vista, it works with the key fn+insert prt sc, then open the paint or other program and press ctrl+v!
thanks man.
if u use laptop u prob got FN button, hold fn button and then press prnt screen then it works.. Fn button is down next to ctrl
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Thank you so much it took me forever to figure this out because I am a laptop user and most tutorials don't tell you about the fn key, so it never worked for me until I found you page. So I just wanted to say thanks so much this will really be useful for me, I think people like you are what make the net such a great place, once again thanks so much I am off to start taking screen shots of the game I've been playing lol