Sometimes is it very handy to be able to take a snapshot or screen grab of what is currently running on a PC. This can be used for allsorts of reasons such as from writing a manual to sending an error or problem to a support center.

There are two ways to take snapshot in MS Windows, one will take a screen grab of everything and the other will just take a snapshot of the current opened program/window.

To simply capture the entire screen press the Print Screen key which is located above the insert key on the keyboard. Then open the paint program which is located in Start->Programs or All Programs->Accessories->Paint. Once this program has opened, click on the Edit menu and then click on the Paste option. The screen that you have just grabbed should now appear in Paint.

Here is a screen I grabbed using the same method while the program notepad was open :

However not all of the time is this useful because, if there are other programs open as well as the one that needs to be captured, then the second method can be used instead.

So to take a snapshot of just one opened window which is currently focused or visible, hold down the Alt key and press the Print Screen once. Then release the Alt key, open the Paint program and click on the Edit menu and then the Paste option.

As you will see the window that has been grabbed does not display the Start Menu or any other programs or windows that were open at the time. As an example I did the same with the Notepad program from the earlier screen grab :

Thats it, so now it will be possible to capture anything that appears in MS Windows