Windows 10 comes with a built-in screenshot capturing feature Print Screen. We all know that, aren’t we? But, do you know there are two more tools known as Snipping tool and Steps Recorder. If you don’t here is a guide explaining 3 ways to capture screenshots in Windows 10.
The Snipping Tool has some handy features and works most of the time. You can quickly capture screenshots with a click of a button as well be able to customize the shape and size of the screenshot with options like a Free-form Snip, Rectangular Snip, Window Snip and Full-screen Snip. There is also a delay option that allows you to delay the capture time by 5 seconds for those moments where you can’t use the Snipping Tool and keep the capturing subject open at the same time.
The doodling option on the Snipping Tool is very basic. Steps Recorder is a different thing. It allows you to capture screenshots of everything you do on the PC based on the number of mouse clicks without having to capture each screen manually.
In this post today, I will take you through all the ways to capture screenshot in Windows 10 without using a third-party tool.
Built-in Screenshot Taking Apps
There are two ways to take screenshots in Windows 10 without using any third-party app. The first one is the Snipping Tool and the second is ever favorite print screen button.
Snipping Tool
Snipping Tool is a built-in feature in Windows 10 that allows you to take screenshots in Windows 10. The app offers quite a few options but misses out on some.
To open the app, type Snipping Tool in the search and click on the search option.
To capture a screenshot, click New button. Use your mouse or trackpad to click and mark the area that needs to be captured and release the mouse button.
Press Ctrl + Save to save the captured screenshot with a name.
If you want to capture a particular app window, open Snipping Tool, press the small drop-down button beside the New button and select Window Snip.
There are more options as well. You can capture a free-form snip, rectangle snip, and fullscreen snip. There is a delay option as well.
Let’s say you want to capture the what appears after pressing the Start button in Windows. But, the screen button screen minimizes as soon as you try to open any other app.
Using the Delay option in Snipping Tool, you can first press the New button in the Snipping Tool and then open whatever that you want to capture under 5 seconds. Once the app is open, you can capture
the screenshot.
Steps Recorder
Another lesser-known app available in Windows OS is the Steps
Recorder app. The app is most useful for people who create technical documents and don’t want to capture a screenshot of each step manually.
Step Recorder once started, records each step the user performs based on the mouse click.
To launch the app, type Steps Recorder in the search bar and open it.
Click the New Recording button.
Steps Recorder will start recording all the mouse clicks and capture the screenshot for the page based on the click.
If you want to add a comment to the screenshot, click on Add a comment button and type the comment related to the screenshot if any. You can also pause the recording and resume it after a while.
Once you have completed all the steps, click Stop Record button.
You can review the recorded steps and screenshot in a new window.
If you want to copy any of the screenshots, right-click on the screenshot and select Copy. Paste it in the Paint app and save it as a png image.
The Steps Recorder saves files in zip format which is helpful in case the screenshots are to be sent to any for reference.
Print Screen
The Windows OS always supported the Print Screen option that can be found on the keyboard. To capture a screenshot, open the screen to capture and press print screen key on the keyboard.
To save the captured screenshot, open MS Paint / Paint 3D and press Ctrl + V to paste the captured screenshot. Print Screen captures the entire screen, so you can’t exclude any area that you don’t wish to capture.
How to Edit the Screenshots?
This is where you feel the need to have a third-party screenshot tool because the Snipping Tool and Steps Recorder does not offer any editing tools except the basic in Snipping Tool.
You can solve this problem to an extent using Windows Photo Viewer and Paint App.
MS Paint App
You can copy the captured screenshot to MS Paint and edit the
screenshot by adding shapes and arrows to mark the area, add text, change colors and even crop unwanted captures.
Another handy feature in MS Paint is that ability to add more than one image to a single Picture. You can increase the size of the canvas and then add multiple screenshots to the same picture for better understanding.
Windows Photo Viewer
The Windows Photo Viewer app has some cools feature to help you edit capture screenshot. You can add a different style of a blur, add filters, crop, rotate and straighten the image, etc.
While the inbuilt Windows 10 screen capture tools are handy, they lack some features. Like the Snipping Tool cannot take a full page or scrolling page screenshot etc. It also lacks proper editing options like adding arrows, text, stickers, blurring the parts of a, etc.
If you want more editing features, check our best photo editing apps for Windows 10 guide. If you want an all-in-one screenshot capture tool, read our best apps to capture full page screenshots in Windows 10 guide.