How to take a screenshot in Windows 7?


If I couldn’t answer that question, you’d rarely see any images on this site at all! You should definitely know how to take a screenshot in Windows 7. Besides, it’s really easy!

Capure Screenshot in Windows 7

Taking a screenshot in Windows 7

The easiest way to take a screenshot in Windows 7 is to use the Snipping Tool.
If there’s one Windows 7/Vista feature that I totally love then it’s the Snipping Tool. You can take a screenshot of your desktop in less than 3 seconds.

Where can I find it?
The Snipping Tool can either be found at C:\Windows\system32\SnippingTool.exe or in Start Menu/All Programs/Accessories.

How do I take a screenshot?
Windows 7/Vista only: Open the Snipping Tool, then click on “New”. The area behind the snipping tool will be greyed out and you can now draw a rectangle to make your screenshot. The rectangle defines the size of your screenshot. Draw a large one if you want to take a screenshot of the whole desktop.

How to take a screenshot in Windows 7

If you need it regularly, you should pin it to the taskbar!

Of course you can also simply press “PrintScreen” and then paste the screenshot into Paint or Photoshop, but the Snipping tool is so much faster. It also allows you to highlight things and save the image as a JPG file.

Taking Screenshots Ingame

If you want to take a screenshot ingame you are either lucky and the game has a built-in screenshot function (most games nowadays have one) or you need a tool like Fraps. Below I listed two examples that might help you to find out how you can capture screenshots ingame.

If you are looking for a free alternative to Fraps, you might want to try out GameCam to capture your screenshots ingame:

Capture Screenshots Ingame

GameCam Download

How to take a screenshot in Aion

Aion has a built-in screenshot function: Press “PrintScreen” (PrtScn) and paste it into your favorite photo editing tool.

How to take a screenshot in Oblivion

Morrowind Oblivion also has a built-in function to take screenshots, but you will have to activate it first.

  • Open Oblivion.ini, to do that go to C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini
  • Find bAllowScreenShot=0
  • Change to bAllowScreenShot=1
  • Save (Strg+S)

Now you can take screenshots in Oblivion, they will automatically be saved to C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion

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Written by: Oliver Krautscheid (Nick: oliversk)
Oliver is the founder and lead editor of this site. He is interested in finding new ways to break Windows, find common e.... Full Bio

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8 Responses to How to take a screenshot in Windows 7?

  1. Ann said:

    You ROCK my world. I work with a bunch of Mac wacs. And it always pis. . . wait, you said keep it clean . . . it angers me that they brag about their stinking screen shot. Now I know we PC Geniuses have it too. Bwaa ha haaaaaaaaaaaa

  2. airboat233 said:

    snippit is cool but i have yet to figure out how to post to a forumn ect..it wont let me copy and paste it, and my print screen dosent seem to work. This is a new pc with OS windows 7…..I can snippit .. have a folder full…i was actually going to try and use the tool as a clip board since microsoft deleted it on windows 7…maybe u can help..would greatly appreciate it.( am 62 and was use to and loved xp3..thanks airboat233

  3. Marti said:

    My prtsc button doesn’t work either, even when I use alt/prtsc as suggested by Quicken. But the snippit worked great…when sent as an attachment in email, it was automatically put into the body of the email. My copy/paste also did not work. Also used to xp3 and fairly new to Windows 7. Thanks for all the tips…am happy I found this site!

  4. Marti said:

    I tried to sign up for newsletter, but got an error message. Used the snippit tool to take a picture of the error message…which worked fine. copied it, but even though the paste function showed up, it would not paste the screenshot into this message. It basically said no valid redirect.

  5. narssabalay said:

    i have 32bit os windows 7 but i cant find snipping tool? why dont i have it?

  6. sOliver said:

    The snipping tools is great for taking a screenshot on Windows 7. You must have it, look in the path specified above

  7. clifton norton said:

    Well, have looked at and tried all suggestions,as with Marti, i am used to Xp and am NOT impressed with 7. windows live mail will not send emails containing the screenshot i EVENTUALLY was able to capture. am ready to uninstall 7 and return to XP, at least it will work!!!

  8. william said:

    I have windows7 and use yahoo.com for emailing.I can capture a screenshot ok but when I try to send it by email I can`t as I get the message “there is no email programme associated” and I dont know how to correct this.

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