Screenshots on a Mac with a Windows keyboard

The Windows key is your Command key, so every Mac screenshot shortcut still works. Print Screen, meanwhile, does nothing at all.

Updated 15 September 2026

The key mapping#

macOS remaps a Windows keyboard automatically the moment you plug it in:

So every Mac shortcut works, with the Windows key standing in for Command. Win+Shift+4 gives you the selection crosshairs exactly as Cmd+Shift+4 would.

Print Screen genuinely does nothing#

macOS has no handler for this key. It isn't a driver problem or a missing setting — the operating system has never assigned it a function.

If you want it to work, remap it:

1. System Settings › Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts › Screenshots.
2. Click the shortcut you want to change.
3. Press your Print Screen key.

It gets recorded as F13 on most keyboards, which is what macOS actually sees when you press it. Once assigned, the key works as a single-press screenshot — arguably nicer than any of the three-key combinations.

If the modifiers feel wrong#

The most common complaint isn't screenshots, it's that copy and paste are under the wrong finger. On a Mac keyboard, Cmd sits immediately beside the space bar; on a Windows keyboard, the Windows key is one position further out with Alt in between.

Swap them: System Settings › Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts › Modifier Keys, pick your external keyboard from the dropdown, and set Option to act as Cmd and vice versa. The setting is per-keyboard, so your MacBook's built-in keys keep their normal behaviour.

Function keys need Fn, or don't#

Most third-party keyboards send F1–F12 as real function keys, so Cmd+Shift+6 and other F-key shortcuts work directly. Keyboards with media controls printed on the row may need Fn held down. There's a Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys toggle in Keyboard settings if you want to flip the default.

Mac keyboard on a Windows laptop, the other direction#

The mapping reverses: Cmd becomes the Windows key, so Cmd+Shift+S gives you the Windows snipping overlay. There's no Print Screen key at all, which is fine because Windows no longer needs one. Methods that don't use it

Once the mapping makes sense, every shortcut on the MacBook guide works exactly as written.