Lately I’ve received a few questions about creating screenshots. This post will provide some information about capturing an image of your computer’s screen using any version of Microsoft Windows.

What is a screenshot?

A screenshot (also called screen print, or screen capture, or screen dump) is simply a image of your computer screen that is captured and saved as an graphics file.

Screenshots can be used to…

• Make a record of something that you have done with your computer
• Illustrate a tutorial
• Create a walk-through of a computer game
• Document a problem with your computer that you need to report to Tech Support

Making a screenshot is very simple…

Before you begin, look at your keyboard and locate the Print Screen key. It will probably be near the Back Space key, and it may be labeled PrtScr or something similar. When you press the Print Screen key, an image of your screen is temporarily stored in the computer’s memory. Once you have captured the screenshot, you’ll need to paste it into an application like Paint, or Word or Adobe Photoshop.

1. Arrange everything on your screen to your liking
2. Press the Print Screen key
3. Open Microsoft Word
4. Position the insertion point where the screenshot should be located
5. Click the Paste button
   (it looks like a clipboard… or type Ctrl V on the keyboard)
6. Your new screenshot should be inserted.

I like to use Word to paste my screen shots because Word handles the image with some intelligence that makes life easier: it re-sizes the image to fit into the document, and compresses the image to create a smaller file. (You’ll get similar results using Paint on Vista, which saves the image as a JPG file.)

To take a Screenshot of the “active window” only, press Alt and Print Screen together. This will take a picture of the topmost window only (aka the Active Window), eliminating the clutter of other windows in the background, the Task Bar, etc. It’s also very useful when you have two monitors!

 For a good video lesson on capturing screenshots on both Mac and Windows, see “How to take screen shots on your Mac or PC” at Lynda.com.

Some laptop computers don’t have a Print Screen key. In that case, you may be interested in one of these products: Jing or  ScreenHunter 5 Free – both of these products have versions that are free for personal and business use.

Image sources:
Standard 102-key computer keyboard with the Print screen key marked in red.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/solylunafamilia/3016899983/

Other resources:

Tutorial: “Windows Print Screen Key”
microsoft.com: “Take a screen shot”
wikipedia: “Screenshot”

Is the Blue Screen Of Death is making a regular appearance? Has your registry has become corrupted? These could be signs of hardware problems, but often the solution is to simply reinstall Windows and start over with a “Like New” computer.

But wait — Rushing into this procedure can create new (and possibly bigger) problems, so do a little planning before you erase your hard drive. You’ll save lots of frustration later!

To help you do it right, Bill Detwiler at TechRepublic has created an excellent video that explains Three critical things to do before reinstalling Windows. (7.5 minutes)

If you are even thinking of reinstalling Windows, do yourself a favor and watch Detwiler’s video. He explains the following three steps in detail:

1. Document all your logins, passwords, and any special network, system or software settings.
2. Back up your data.
3. Gather up all your application and driver discs.

Detwiler also mentions another excellent resource from Tech Republic: 10 things you should do before, during, and after reinstalling Windows by Alan Norton. You’ll find a lot of detail and excellent advice in Norton’s document too.

After you watch the video, here are some links that may help you:

Detwiler mentions The Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder — it’s a free program to help you find the Product Key (CD key) you used to install Windows; it also works on Office 2003 and Office 2007.

He also recommends that you virus scan all those files you plan to backup and restore to your newly installed Windows machine. You DO have up-to-date anti-virus protection, don’t you? If not, you may be interested in this free solution: http://www.clamwin.com/

And unless you are reinstalling Windows on a brand-new hard drive, I recommend you wipe the old hard drive clean first. Just be sure you’ve copied all your important files onto some other media!

To blank-out hard drives I use a free program called Darik’s Boot and Nuke (“DBAN”). It is also great to use when you’re selling or donating an old computer and want to destroy all your personal data.

To prep your own computer for a Windows reinstall, you can use a faster, less thorough DBAN disk wipe — I explain how to do that in this PDF document.

Hopefully, you’ll never need to worry about reinstalling Windows — but if you do, do it right!