How to make your Print Screen button open the Snippet Tool - Windows 10 & 11

There are many times we need a copy of what we are seeing on our screen.

If you use a desktop PC, there are a few ways you can do so.

All PCs have a button on the keyboard called Print Screen. It will always be located in the upper right hand corner of your keyboard.

1. If you press it, it will take a screenshot of the entire screen. Nothing will happen at this point though. You will have to open a program and paste it, whether that be Paint or Microsoft Word or something else. Skip to #4 to see how to make this button work when pressed.
2. If you press and hold the Alt button then press the Print Screen button and release, it will take a screenshot of the current window you are in. Again, nothing will happen though, you'll have to go paste it into a program of your choice.
3. If you press and hold the windows button, press and hold the Shift button and press S and release,  your entire screen will dim, the Snipping Tool will open and show an options bar at the top of your screen that looks like the below.

The options are Rectangular, Freeform, Window or Full Screen snip. After selecting what you want, left click and drag on the screen where you want to copy. After you release your mouse button, a window will pop in from the lower right corner. Click on it. If you miss it, not to worry, click down by your clock on the notifications you see on a circle.

A full top to bottom size window on the right will appear, these are where all your notifications are at, and your screenshot will be at the top.  Once you click to open the screenshot, which ever way you chose, it opens the Snippet Tool app.   If you don't think you'll remember the key combo mentioned above to start the screen clip, simply right click on the Snippet Tool icon in the bottom toolbar of your screen while it is open and select Pin To Toolbar. Then all you'll have to do is open the app and it tells you the key combo to start the snippet.

If you cannot find the Snippet Tool on your computer, open SEARCH and start typing screenshot.

Use one of these ways for quicker access:

Windows 11

You can PIN TO START from here if you right click on the Snippet Tool icon. 
From here you can OPEN the app and then PIN TO TOOLBAR by method mentioned above.

Windows 10 

PIN TO TOOLBAR and PIN TO MENU are listed there instead, as well as a few more useful options (prefer this over the new way)

4. So, you want your Print Screen button to actually do something when you press it?

Well, open your computers OPTIONS - there are many ways to open options but a quick way is to right click on the bottom toolbar and select Taskbar Settings.

    Windows 11 - Once the window opens, select Accessibility. Scroll down to Keyboard. Scroll down to On-Screen Keyboard, access keys and Print Screen section.

   Windows 10 - type PRINT SCREEN in the FIND A SETTING search box. Scroll down and click on the option that appears USE THE PRINT SCREEN KEY TO LAUNCH SCREEN SNIPPING. 

The one that says 'Use the Print screen button to open screen snipping' toggle this on. It says you may need to restart your computer, but I did not.

Now, press the print screen button, that didn't previously do anything, and it now opens the Snippet Tool ready for a screenshot to be taken  If it doesn't, try restarting your computer as mentioned before.

If screenshot clipping is part of your computer life, then this should really help ease your pain of having to deal with multiple key combos or opening programs to make it happen, like certain gaming apps that do it. Now simply press one button and you're good to go.

ENJOY!
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