Every laptop screenshot shortcut, in one place
One table per system, including the clipboard variants most guides leave out. Print it, bookmark it, or paste it into your team wiki.
Most used, all systems
- Win + Shift + SWindows area select
- Cmd + Shift + 4Mac area select
- Ctrl + Shift + Show windowsChromeOS area select
Windows 11 and Windows 10#
The pattern to learn: adding Win saves a file, leaving it out puts the image on the clipboard only, and adding Alt limits the capture to the window in front.
| Keys | What it captures | Where it ends up |
|---|---|---|
| PrtSc | Everything on screen | Clipboard. On Windows 11 it opens the Snipping Tool overlay instead |
| Win + PrtSc | Everything on screen | Saved to Pictures › Screenshots |
| Alt + PrtSc | The active window only | Clipboard |
| Win + Shift + S | An area you draw | Clipboard, with a notification to edit and save |
| Win + Alt + PrtSc | The active window, via Game Bar | Saved to Videos › Captures |
| Win + Alt + R | Starts and stops screen recording | Saved to Videos › Captures |
| Win + G | Opens the Game Bar overlay | Capture widget, works in any app |
macOS — MacBook, Air and Pro#
Same pattern in reverse: macOS saves a file by default, and adding Ctrl sends it to the clipboard instead.
| Keys | What it captures |
|---|---|
| Cmd + Shift + 3 | The whole screen, saved to the desktop |
| Cmd + Shift + 4 | An area you drag out |
| Cmd + Shift + 4 then Space | One window, with its shadow, background excluded |
| Cmd + Shift + 5 | The screenshot toolbar, including video recording |
| Cmd + Shift + 6 | The Touch Bar, on models that have one |
| Ctrl added to any of the above | Copies to clipboard instead of saving a file |
| Space while dragging a selection | Moves the selection box without resizing it |
| Esc mid-capture | Cancels, leaving nothing behind |
ChromeOS — Chromebooks#
The key with the rectangle-and-two-lines icon, above the 6, is Show windows. Some keyboards label it Overview. On an external Windows keyboard it maps to F5. Where it sits on the keyboard, and how the rest of the row differs.
| Keys | What it captures |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Show windows | The whole screen |
| Ctrl + Shift + Show windows | An area, a window, or the full screen via the toolbar |
| Ctrl + Alt + Show windows | The active window only |
| Shift + Ctrl + Show windows then the video icon | Screen recording |
| Power + Volume down | Whole screen, for tablet mode and detached keyboards |
Everything lands in Downloads and appears in Tote at the corner of the shelf.
Linux#
Shortcuts follow the desktop environment rather than the distribution, so Ubuntu and Fedora match while Kubuntu differs. PrtSc works everywhere; Shift+PrtSc selects an area on GNOME. The full breakdown by desktop, including the Wayland change that broke older tools.
Modifier logic, once and for all#
Learn these three rules and you can work out any combination you've forgotten, or keep the full shortcut table open while you do:
- Shift narrows the capture. It turns a full-screen grab into a selectable region on both Windows and ChromeOS.
- Alt means "this window". True on Windows and ChromeOS alike.
- Ctrl switches the destination. On Windows it's the absence of Win that means clipboard; on Mac, adding Ctrl means clipboard.
Changing any of these#
None of these combinations are fixed. Windows lets you point the Print Screen key at the Snipping Tool in Settings › Accessibility › Keyboard. macOS lets you reassign or disable each one under System Settings › Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts › Screenshots. ChromeOS doesn't allow remapping the capture shortcut itself, but it does let you remap the modifier keys underneath it.
Questions people actually ask
Which single shortcut should I memorise?
On Windows, Win+Shift+S. On a Mac, Cmd+Shift+4. Both let you capture the whole screen by dragging corner to corner, so they replace the full-screen shortcut as well, and neither needs the Print Screen key.
Do these work on a laptop plugged into an external monitor?
Full-screen shortcuts capture every connected display. Windows writes them into one wide image; macOS saves a separate file per display. Area selection works across the boundary between screens on both.
Are the shortcuts different on a gaming laptop?
The operating system's shortcuts are identical. What changes is that gaming laptops usually ship with a vendor overlay or GeForce Experience installed, and those claim the Print Screen key for their own capture feature. The screenshot still happens, it just goes to that app's folder.