---
title: "How to screenshot on Windows 11"
url: "https://screenshot-laptop.com/windows/windows-11/"
platform: "Windows"
section: "Windows laptops"
updated: "2026-09-15"
license: "CC-BY-4.0"
attribution: "screenshot-laptop.com"
shortcuts:
  - "PrtSc"
  - "Win + Shift + S"
  - "Win + PrtSc"
---

# How to screenshot on Windows 11

*Windows 11 changed what the Print Screen key does and rebuilt the Snipping Tool around it. If a guide written for Windows 10 isn't matching what you see, this is why.*

URL: https://screenshot-laptop.com/windows/windows-11/

## The short answer

- `PrtSc` — Opens the capture overlay (new in 11)
- `Win` + `Shift` + `S` — Same overlay, works on any version
- `Win` + `PrtSc` — Straight to Pictures › Screenshots

## The Print Screen key now opens an overlay

On Windows 10, tapping Print Screen silently copied the whole screen. On Windows 11 it dims the screen and gives you the capture toolbar instead — the same one `Win`+`Shift`+`S` produces.

This is better for most people, since you no longer capture a full screen just to crop 5% of it. If you preferred the old silent copy, turn the new behaviour off in **Settings › Accessibility › Keyboard**, under the Print Screen toggle.

## Three things the rebuilt Snipping Tool added

**Screen recording.** Click the camcorder icon in the toolbar, drag a region, press Start. It writes an MP4 to Videos › Screen Recordings. This closed the last real gap that made third-party tools necessary for quick demos.

**Text extraction.** Open a capture in the Snipping Tool and press `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`T`, or click the text actions icon. It reads the text in the image and lets you copy it. It also has a redact option that blanks out email addresses and phone numbers it recognises, which is genuinely useful before posting a screenshot publicly. [More on pulling text out of images](https://screenshot-laptop.com/how-to/screenshot-to-text/).

**A colour picker.** Minor, but it saves installing an eyedropper utility.

## Every Windows 11 method

|Keys|Result|
|---|---|
|`PrtSc`|Capture overlay, unless you've turned that off|
|`Win` + `Shift` + `S`|Capture overlay, always|
|`Win` + `PrtSc`|Full screen saved as a file, no overlay|
|`Alt` + `PrtSc`|Active window to clipboard|
|`Win` + `Alt` + `R`|Game Bar screen recording|
|`Win` + `Shift` + `R`|Snipping Tool recording, on recent builds|

> **Important:** Two recording shortcuts that differ by one key is a genuine trap. `Win`+`Alt`+`R` is Game Bar and saves to Videos › Captures. `Win`+`Shift`+`R` is the Snipping Tool and saves to Videos › Screen Recordings. If a recording has vanished, check the other folder.

## Turning on the snipping sound and auto-save

Open the Snipping Tool, click the three dots, then Settings. Two options worth changing straight away:

- **Automatically save original screenshots.** Off by default in some builds, which means a capture you don't manually save exists only on the clipboard. Turning it on writes every capture to Pictures › Screenshots as well.
- **Play shutter sound.** Purely so you know it worked. Removes a lot of second-guessing.

## Snap layouts change what "the active window" means

Windows 11's snapped window groups confuse `Alt`+`PrtSc`. With two apps snapped side by side, it captures only the focused one, cropped to its half of the screen — often not what you wanted. Use `Win`+`PrtSc` for the whole arrangement, or the overlay's window mode to pick deliberately.

If your machine is older than this, the [Windows 10 behaviour](https://screenshot-laptop.com/windows/windows-10/) differs in one important way, and [the Windows overview](https://screenshot-laptop.com/windows/) compares all six methods side by side.

## Capturing part of the screen in Windows 11

1. **Press Win + Shift + S** — The screen dims and a small toolbar appears at the top centre. Print Screen on its own does the same thing on Windows 11.
2. **Choose a capture mode** — Rectangle is selected by default. The other icons give you freeform, current window, and entire screen.
3. **Drag across what you want** — Release the mouse and the screen returns to normal. The image is now on your clipboard.
4. **Paste it, or click the notification** — Ctrl+V drops it into any app. Clicking the notification in the bottom-right corner opens it in the Snipping Tool for cropping, annotation and saving.
5. **Save with Ctrl + S** — Choose PNG to keep it sharp, or JPG if you need a smaller file for email.

## Questions

**Why does Print Screen behave differently on my Windows 11 than my colleague's?**

The overlay behaviour arrived in a 2023 update and respects whatever the toggle in Settings › Accessibility › Keyboard is set to. Machines upgraded from Windows 10 sometimes keep the old setting, so two machines on the same build can genuinely differ.

**Does Windows 11 have a scrolling screenshot?**

Not built in, no. The Snipping Tool captures only what's visible. [Ways to capture a full page anyway](https://screenshot-laptop.com/windows/scrolling-screenshot/).

**Where do Windows 11 screen recordings go?**

Snipping Tool recordings go to Videos › Screen Recordings. Game Bar recordings go to Videos › Captures. They're separate features with separate folders.