Many times a computer user may need the ability to print what they see on the screen, but can’t access a Print command. Using the underutilized Print Screen button on the keyboard can rectify this situation.

You can still use the Print Screen button to insert an image into an editor, but if you’d rather just quickly get an image file, you can press the Windows button and Print Screen at the same time (Win + PrtScn). PowerShell print: Screen or file. As you can see, you can print values in PowerShell to either the screen or to a file. In the former, you can use Write-Host or Write-Output, depending on your preferences and your programming flow while for the latter, use Out-File cmdlet.

The Print Screen button is usually located just to the right of your F keys and above the Insert, Home, Delete key section.

In the ol’ days of DOS, pushing this button would indeed send a paper flying out of your printer with the contents of your screen printed on it. Today, however, when you push the button, nothing appears to happen. Appearance is not as it always seems…your computer takes a ‘snap shot’ of whatever is currently visible on the screen and stores it in the Windows Clipboard when you press the Print Screen button.

To access this ‘snap shot’:

  1. Open your favorite word processor (if you are using Word, sometimes it needs to be open before you hit the Print Screen button). WordPad works great for this tips.

  • Click Edit from the menus

  • Click Paste from the menus

  • Now print as you normally would via File –> Print from the menus.

    • Beavis beacon typing. If you only want to print out part of the screen, you can either crop it in your word processing program (if the program supports that function) OR you can paste your screen shot in an image editing program or even Microsoft Paint to further modify the screen snap shot.

    Go on, give it a try. You are sure to find a use for this interesting and useful tip. Believe it or not, this function has been built into all versions of Microsoft Windows since 1995!

    TIP WITHIN A TIP: Push the Alt key plus Print Screen to capture just the ‘active window’. For example an error message box or a dialog box.

    Related

    Summary :

    Have you encountered Print Screen not working issue? If so, you should read this post, in which MiniTool shows you how to fix this problem with 5 solutions. Keep reading to get them.

    Quick Navigation :

    Hello, I'm a gamer and sometimes have need to take screenshots of what I'm doing for reference, forum posts, etc..You can imagine my surprise when I hit the 'Prt Sc' key on my Windows 10 PC only to have nothing on the clipboard when I tried pasting into Windows Paint..What might be the cause of this and how can I fix it? ---answers.microsoft.com
    Many of you may encounter Print Screen not working Windows 10 issue when capturing your desktop screen by using the Print Screen. If a bitmap image of the current screen or screenshot isn't saved to the Windows clipboard after pressing Print Screen (PrtSc) key, you can follow the solutions below to solve it.
    How to convert a screenshot to PDF in Windows 10? In this article, you will know how to do that with 2 different tools.

    Solution 1. Stop Background Programs

    Many background programs such as OneDrive, Snippet tool or Dropbox etc. can take over the Print Screen key and prevent you from taking screenshots on your computer. If so, you should close these programs through the following steps:
    Step 1: Press 'Ctrl + Shift + Esc' key together to open Task Manager.
    Step 2: Right-click on programs and select End Task to close them.

    Solution 2. Use Hotkey Combination

    If pressing single PrtSc key doesn't work, you can try the following hotkey combinations:
    How do you print your screen on a mac
    Are you facing “Alt + Tab not working” when using it to switch to another application? This article shows you how to solve this issue in various ways.

    Solution 3. Check If There Is an F Mode or F Lock Key on the Keyboard

    How Do You Print Your Screen On A Pc

    If there is an F Mode key or F Lock key on your keyboard, the Print Screen not working Windows 10 may be caused by them, because such keys can disable the Print Screen key. If so, you should enable the Print Screen key by pressing F Mode key or F Lock key again.

    Solution 4. Update Keyboard Driver

    An old or incorrect keyboard driver may also cause Print Screen not working Windows 10. Thus, you can try updating the keyboard driver to solve this problem. Please refer to the following steps:
    Step 1: Press 'Windows + X' keys and then choose Device Manager from the shortcut menu to open it.
    Step 2: Expand Keyboards directory and then right-click on Standard PS/2 Keyboard. Then, select Update driver.
    Step 3: Select Search automatically for updated driver software and wait for Windows to automatically install the latest driver.
    Then, reboot your PC and see if you’re able to fix the issue. If not, you should then perform the following steps to update keyboard driver again:
    Step 1: Head over to your manufacturer’s website and download the required drivers accordingly. Then, you should extract the driver file if it is a compressed file.
    Step 2: Similarly, open Device Manager, expand Keyboards, right-click on Standard PS/2 Keyboard and choose Update driver.

    Easy Way To Print Screen

    Step 3: Select Browse my computer for driver software. Then, click on Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer. Finally, select the new driver from the list and click Next.
    Then, reboot your PC to save changes and see if you have fixed Print Screen not working Windows 10 issue.

    Solution 5. Use Alternative Tool

    If all the above methods can't solve the Print Screen not working Windows 10 issue, you can use an alternative tool: Snipping Tool. This in-built tool in Windows can take a screenshot of the portion of the currently active window or the whole screen. Please refer to the following steps to use it:
    Step 1: Press 'Windows + S' keys, type “snipping tool” and click the best-matched app to launch it.
    Step 2: Click Mode and choose a proper snipping mode from the pop-up menu.
    How do you make the best use of Windows 10? Here you will find the best tips and tricks for Windows 10.