How to take a screenshot on a laptop

Three key combinations cover roughly every laptop sold today. Try the one that matches your machine, then keep reading only if it fails.

Updated 15 September 2026

The short answer

Win + Shift + SWindows — draw a box around what you want
Cmd + Shift + 4MacBook — drag to select an area
Ctrl + Show windowsChromebook — capture the whole screen

If one of those worked, the image is either on your clipboard or already saved as a file. Where it lands depends on the method, and that catches out more people than the shortcuts themselves do, so it has its own page.

Work out which system you have#

Laptop screenshots are handled by the operating system, not by the laptop maker. That means an HP and a Dell running the same version of Windows take screenshots in exactly the same way. What differs between brands is the keyboard — where the Print Screen key sits, what it's abbreviated to, and whether you need to hold Fn to reach it.

So there are two questions, and you need both answers:

If you don't know which system you're on, look at the bottom-left of the screen. A Start button or a search box pinned to a taskbar means Windows. A row of rounded icons floating at the bottom means macOS. A circle or grid icon in a shelf at the bottom-left means ChromeOS.

Then find your keyboard#

Once you know the method, these pages show where the key actually lives on your brand's layout and which ones hide it behind Fn:

The three kinds of screenshot#

Almost every request falls into one of these, and knowing which one you want saves you from cropping afterwards.

What you want	Windows	Mac	Chromebook
The entire screen, saved as a file	`Win`+`PrtSc`	`Cmd`+`Shift`+`3`	`Ctrl`+`Show windows`
Just part of the screen	`Win`+`Shift`+`S`	`Cmd`+`Shift`+`4`	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Show windows`
One window, nothing behind it	`Alt`+`PrtSc`	`Cmd`+`Shift`+`4` then `Space`	`Ctrl`+`Alt`+`Show windows`

The full table, including screen recording and the combinations that copy to the clipboard instead of saving, is on the shortcut reference page.

When nothing happens at all#

A dead shortcut is almost never a broken laptop. In order of how often it turns out to be the cause:

The function row is in media mode, so the key you pressed changed the volume instead. Try it again with Fn held down.
The screenshot did work, but it went to the clipboard rather than a folder, so there was no visible confirmation. Open any chat box and press Ctrl+V.
Another app has claimed the key. Overlays from GeForce Experience, OneDrive, Dropbox and Snagit all do this by default.

Each of those has a full walkthrough: Print Screen not working, screenshots not saving, and the specific case of a screenshot that comes out completely black.

Doing something with the image afterwards#

Capturing is the easy half. The rest:

Questions people actually ask

Do I need to download anything to take a screenshot?

No. Every laptop operating system in current use has screenshot tools built in, and they capture at full quality. Downloads only become worth it for repetitive work — automatic file naming, scrolling capture of long pages, blurring sensitive fields, or uploading somewhere as soon as you release the mouse. What the paid tools actually add.

Why does my laptop have no Print Screen key?

Compact keyboards drop it to make room, and many gaming laptops give the space to macro keys instead. It isn't a problem, because the key is optional on Windows: Win+Shift+S does more than Print Screen ever did. Five methods that don't need the key.

Can a website tell that I screenshotted it?

On a laptop, essentially no. The capture happens in the operating system, below the level a page's JavaScript can observe, and no notification is sent anywhere. Streaming apps are the exception, and they don't detect the capture so much as block it — you get a black rectangle instead of the video. That's copy protection doing its job, not surveillance.

Is there a way to screenshot without pressing any keys?

Yes, on all three systems. Windows has the Snipping Tool in the Start menu, macOS has Screenshot in the Utilities folder, and ChromeOS puts Screen capture in the quick settings panel. All three are slower than the shortcut but useful when a key is physically broken.