FAQ: How do I perform a screen capture for technical support? [17767]

This article provides instructions for the built-in screen capture and screen recording options in Windows. Many third-party applications offer similar capabilities. Versions of Windows prior to Windows 10 do not offer a built-in screen recording option. As an example, OBS Studio (https://obsproject.com/) is a free and open-source option for screen recording in Windows.

Windows 10 and 11

More recent versions of Windows 10 and 11 have both screen capture and screen recording mechanisms built into the operating system.

To launch immediately into a screen capture with the Snipping Tool/Snip & Sketch application, press and hold the following shortcut: WIN key + SHIFT + s. Depending on your Windows Settings, a Windows Notification pops up by default, which you can click on to open the screen shot for any further edits and to save the image.

To start a screen recording with the Xbox Game Bar, press and hold the following shortcut: WIN key + Alt + r. The recording starts after a few seconds. After your recording is done, press the Stop button:

Then, click the Windows Notification that pops up by default:

Select the relevant recording among those in your Gallery and choose Open File Location:

The default file type for the screen recordings is .mp4 and the default location is C:\Users\[USERNAME]\Videos\Captures. If you need to share any videos that collectively exceed our Support platform's 20 MB upload limit, we recommend you share the file(s) via a Dropbox link (https://www.dropbox.com/).

NOTE: While you may be able to record an E-Prime experiment when you invoke the shortcut during a run, we do not support this beyond troubleshooting purposes, see ERROR: Running experiments remotely, with screen sharing software, or in a virtualized environment is not supported [37202].

NOTE: The Xbox Game Bar screen recording option cannot record File Explorer or the Desktop. If you do not see the recording start after you invoke the shortcut, select the relevant application (e.g., E-Studio) and make it fullscreen then try again.

Legacy Windows Versions (Windows 8 and earlier)

To perform a screen capture:

1. Find your Print Screen button. It differs by keyboard model, but it is usually in the row closest to the top of the keyboard. Look for the third button from the right end of the row or to the right of the F12 key. It could say one of the following:
• Print Screen/Sys Rq
• PrtScn/SysRq
• PrtScn 
2. Press the Print Screen button to take a picture of the entire screen. To capture only the active window, first hold down the Alt key and then press the Print Screen button. This copies the screen capture to the computer's clipboard.
3. Open the Paint program which can be found in the Accessories or Windows Accessories folder in the Start Menu. Retrieve the image from the clipboard by holding down the Ctrl button and pressing the 'v' key to paste. Save the image.

To crop part of the saved screen capture:

1. Press the rectangular Selection tool in the toolbox. It looks like a box made of dotted lines.
2. Click on the upper-left corner of where the image should start from. While the left mouse key is held down, drag the mouse until the resulting rectangle has covered everything that should be in the image. Release the mouse button.
3. Click the Crop button to crop the image down to what was selected in rectangular Selection tool.

Please send PST screen captures as attachments to support requests. They can be helpful in diagnosing issues. Files can be attached in the box beneath your message content during a request. If you require sending multiple files, consider compressing them into a .zip file or adding additional files in later follow-up replies.