How to Take Screenshots for Windows Laptops or PCs

How to Take Screenshots for Windows Laptops or PCs

Taking a screenshot on Windows computers should not be confusing or difficult. And yet, I find the several procedures you have to go through to be confusing and frustrating. To make capturing Windows 10 or 11 screenshots simpler, I will show you some simple steps you can follow.

Before start taking any screenshots, you will need to know a few things and I will go over those first.

Clipboard

Clipboard is like a bank where you are depositing some of your Windows computer’s activities for later use. In order to access Clipboard, you need to turn it on first.

Search in the Windows search box for Clip and then go to Clipboard settings and turn on history:

Clipboard – Clipboard Settings – Clipboard History

To open clipboard and copy from it, use the Windows button + V

Files or File Explorer – This PC – Pictures – Screenshots

Search for Files and then open the Pictures folder.

Files or File Explorer – This PC – Pictures – Screenshots

You will see the Screenshots folder where screenshots you take will be saved.

Microsoft Paint (Image Editing Tool)

You will also need an image editing tool such as Microsoft Paint. Search for Paint and click on the first match for the Paint app. MS Paint will open the screenshot image once you transfer it from the clipboard.

Other image editors should work the same way, although I have never tried anything else but MS Paint. MS Paint is the default image editor on Windows computers and most users stick with the default editor that comes with their PCs.

5 Ways to Take A Screenshot on Windows 10 & 11 PC

1. Print Screen (Entire Screen)

    PrtScn or Print Scr

Press PrtScn or Print Scr on your keyboard. This button sometimes may be associated with a function button. This means that you have to press these buttons together.

Once you do so, it will take a screen shot of the entire screen and put it on Clipboard. You may not see any activities on the monitor, but the print screen is there. Bring up the Clipboard (Windows button + V) and open an image editor like Microsoft Paint. Then click on the Clipboard and this will transfer the image to the editor.

You can edit (edit to get a specific part of the screenshot) and save from the image editor and go from there. Also, you can use any other image editor.

 2. Windows key + Print Screen (Entire Screen & Saves Automatically)

      Windows + Print Screen key

This method saves the screenshot automatically and you can get it from the Screenshots folder, which I mentioned earlier.

Press the Windows + Print Screen key. You will notice the screen gets dim for a second. Once you obtain the full screenshot from the folder, you can edit it to your preference.

3. Alt + Print Screen (Active Window)

      Alt + PrtScn.

The difference between the #3 method and #1 and #2 is that here you are only screenshotting the active screen. Your Active Window is the window which you are currently working on or your primary main window.

Once you press Alt + PrtScn, you need to use the Clipboard to retrieve this screenshot and edit it by using an image editor like mentioned above.

4. Snipping Tool

Access via the search bar

This is an old method to take a screenshot and Microsoft has been saying it won’t be available in the future, but looks like it’s still hanging in there for us to use, including in the new Windows 11. 

Snipping Tool is not listed in the list of apps, so you have to search for Snipping to access it. You will see 2 options: New & Mode. Click on Mode and you will see 4 options:

Free-form Snip – Lets you draw and cut a screenshot
Rectangular Snip – Rectangular screenshot
Window Snip – Active Window screenshot
Full-screen Snip – Full-screen screenshot

Choose one from above and hit New and you will get your screenshot. Snipping Tool saves one copy in the Clipboard or you can save manually from File.

5. Snip & Sketch

Windows key + Shift + S

This is the newer screenshot tool Microsoft is trying to get everyone used to. You can access it using the command Windows key + Shift + S, located in the alphabetical list of apps, located in the notification panel, or just search for it.  

When you have the Snip & Sketch tool up, you will see 4 options, which are the same 4 options as #4 Snipping Tool above. Once you take a screenshot, it saves in the Clipboard. Use MS Paint or another app to transfer from Clipboard and then you can edit and save.

These are the ways you can take screenshots in Windows. I have a video showing step-by-step all of the above, which you can watch here to visualize the above instructions.

How to Take Screenshots on Windows 10 Windows 11 PC or Laptop

How Not to Hold: Using Apps That Let Customer Service Reps Call You Back

Make Customer Service Reps Hold for You

First Published Date : September 8, 2015

We all have those frustrating moments of calling customer service; they put us on hold for hours and to make matters worse we don’t know how long we will have to hold. In the past, I always thought there was no solution to this infinite hold, but I guess I was wrong.

What technology makes possible today was unthinkable just years ago and yes, I am talking about the end of the vicious cycle of being forwarded from one number to another at customer service and the endless hold times. There are apps now for your smartphone that can do all that, as they will make customer service call you back. You don’t have to be transferred from one number to another because these apps will tell you what numbers to press at each prompt to get you to the right department.

FastCustomer: When you call your desired company using the FastCustomer app on your phone, FastCustomer calls the number, navigates through the menus, listens to the music, and once it gets a live rep, it will call you back. So you don’t have to hold and wait for someone; the app will call you back and you can spend time doing something else.

GetHuman: GetHuman gives you more options, as it shows how long the wait time is for the number you are trying to reach and what options to press at prompt to get through. Or if you prefer to have a call back, GetHuman will call you back once a live rep is available, just like FastCustomer.

Keep in mind that not all companies are on these apps’ database yet and there might be problems with calls occasionally, as these apps are still developing. I tried both apps from Canada to call WestJet, American Express, and VISA and they worked. I had a call back from these companies and everything went smooth. What I noticed is that if one company is not on one app’s database, probably it will be on the other one’s. So it’s a good idea to use more than one app to get your customer service. And there are other similar apps available like these two, but I find these two work the best and the most user friendly.

Online Grocery Shopping During COVID-19 Coronavirus | Tips & Tricks

Longo's Grocery Gateway vs. Metro Online Compare | Which Online Grocery Is Better

When it comes to online grocery shopping, it works mainly two ways. You can grocery shop online directly from the grocery supermarket itself or you can go through a 3rd party provider who will let you pick items from multiple groceries and will deliver them to your doorstep for a fee.

These fees can be hefty depending on how many items you buy or how many different grocery stores or supermarkets you use to pick your items. Some of these providers are Cornershop, Easy Peasy Grocery Delivery, Inabuggy, Instacart, and many others.

I tried to buy from 2 grocery supermarkets, Longo’s and Metro, who provide online grocery services and deliver their own groceries through their own online stores Grocery Gateway and Metro Online.

Both of these online grocery stores have a $50 minimum purchase requirement and delivery fees are $10 (Grocery Gateway) and $12 (Metro).

I was able to pick my items, but there were no time slots available for delivery as far as their system allowed. Due to the COVID-19 situation, people bought and booked these slots some time ago.

Metro showed one time slot available, but when I tried to grab it, it seemed like their system was not functioning properly and I was unable to book it. You will see more in the video.

Metro’s cart didn’t show the total when I was purchasing items. It only showed the number of items instead. To see if I met the minimum, I had to click on the cart each time after adding an item, which didn’t make sense.

Grocery Gateway showed my total from any page, without clicking on the cart.

Overall, I found Longo’s Grocery gateway offered a better user-friendly layout and an overall pleasant online grocery shopping experience. Things were much more organized than Metro and everything was easier to find.

The Continuous Depletion of Time Account

Do Not Waste Your Most Valuable Resource – Time. The One-Shot Supply of This Mostly Precious Asset Should Not Be Taken As Granted 

When we were born, we all started with one-time supply of our time on earth. If you consider your first day on earth as Day 1 and assume you will live up to 100 years of age, here is what you have:

100 years X 365 days = 36500 days X 24 Hours = 876,000 hours.

These numbers are the same for everyone. Whether we are old or young, black or white, religious or atheist, the world’s richest person or the world’s poorest person, all of us have the same amount of time to waste and to utilize. Time is neutral, does not discriminate, and does not treat anyone unfairly.  

The moment you were born, you started depleting your time account. Although some of us may live longer than others, but we can’t stretch time beyond our mortality. Think of time as your bank account where you have 876,000 units (or more or less depending on how long you live) deposited for you only once. There is no way you will be able to deposit more units or manipulate your account to inflate your units.

Yet, most of us take this most valuable and precious resource for granted and keep wasting it till the day when we have nothing left in our time bank account. The difference between a successful person and failed person in every aspect of time is the results of how successfully or poorly each utilized their time.

Let me give you some examples of how poorly we waste our time which can never be deposited back into our time account. These examples are hilarious and sad at the same time, as we failed to value our most precious resource, “Time”, which can never be recovered.

- Driving hours to save $10 
- Standing in long lines and wasting hours to get free stuff 
- Sleeping away the whole afternoon 
- Buying and then returning something many times and spending endless hours doing so 
- Spending hours watching useless TV channels like talk shows and reality shows 
- Spending unproductive hours online on sites like Facebook, YouTube, etc.

These examples can go on and on. But you should have an idea already how people are endlessly wasting time without realising what they are doing.

Stop the leakage of your most valuable asset – your time. Consider every moment of your time is precious and understand that it will never be regained. Utilize each unit of time properly and in productive ways. Lifetime success and happiness will be upon you if you can successfully manage and use each and every unit. Time is what makes the difference between a winner and a loser. Don’t wait for that moment to regret when you will have only the last remaining units in your time account.

Why Go For Outsourcing?

Outsourcing Can Benefit Your business

Outsourcing has grown in popularity in the last couple of years. For a long time, it was something that was the sole preserve of companies who had specific funds for paying outside contractors to do things that were outside their skill sets – for example if a company specialized in one field, such as sales and marketing, they would outsource things such as cleaning and IT solutions. However, among other things, the Internet has now made it more possible than ever to run a business from your home as an individual. In addition, with all business people aware of the old maxim, “time is money”, there are more and more things that the individual has found can be best addressed by outsourcing.

Outsourcing itself covers a very broad range of services that are best divided into two sections: Business and Non-Business needs. The difference between the two sections is more or less self-explanatory. Suffice it to say that Business needs are things connected specifically with the service that you, the business owner, requires in order to keep the business running – these include such things as web design, accounts and sourcing required items and services. Non-Business needs are more connected with personal or household tasks that take time that could be used to deliver what is required from you by your customers. This includes things such as cleaning and other essential chores.

There are very few tasks that cannot be outsourced in this day and age. As a business owner, it is for you to decide whether outsourcing is something that you wish to practice. In order to make this decision it is worth auditing what your daily routine involves, where you can make changes and where you wish to make them. If you feel that you are best served by having all your time free to concentrate on delivering what is required of your business, the chances are that you would be best outsourcing as much as you feel comfortable with. You probably do not much enjoy cleaning and tidying, for example. And depending on your arrangements you can end up spending a couple of hours a week at the task, which in turn can lead to lost opportunities to build and serve a customer base. Therefore, you should then ask yourself whether that task is a productive use of your time. If the answer is “no”, then you can look to outsource your cleaning to a specialist.

Business needs are, if anything, more crucial. If your specialist area is – taking an example – accountancy, then there is every chance that you are not the world’s best web designer. Nevertheless, an attractive, easily navigable website with user-friendly interface is more or less essential for an individual businessperson. In this case, handing over the task of designing a website makes all the sense in the world. It won’t come cheap if you are using a top designer, but if you cost the process based on how much business a good website will send your way (generally a very large amount), then it can pay for itself several times over.