For decades, pressing the Print Screen (PrtScn) key on a Windows keyboard silently captured your entire screen and copied it to the clipboard, allowing you to instantly paste it into Paint or a Word document. However, in a recent Windows 11 update, Microsoft changed this behaviour. Now, pressing the Print Screen key forcibly opens the Snipping Tool overlay, interrupting your workflow and requiring extra clicks to capture the screen.
While the Snipping Tool is useful for cropping specific areas, power users often rely on the instantaneous, silent capture of the classic Print Screen function, especially when trying to capture fast-moving video or disappearing context menus. You can restore the classic functionality by disabling the Snipping Tool override.
How to Restore the Classic Print Screen Key in Windows 11
You can unlink the Snipping Tool from the Print Screen key in the Accessibility settings.
- Click the Start button and select the Settings gear icon (or press Windows Key + I).
- In the left-hand navigation pane, click on Accessibility.
- Scroll down the main window on the right until you find the “Interaction” section, and click on Keyboard.
- Scroll down to the section titled “On-screen keyboard, access keys, and Print screen.”
- You will see a toggle switch labelled Use the Print screen key to open Snipping Tool.
- Click the toggle switch to turn it Off.
The change takes effect immediately. The next time you press the Print Screen key, the screen will not darken, and the Snipping Tool menu will not appear. Instead, Windows will silently copy a full-resolution image of your entire monitor (or monitors) directly to your clipboard, exactly as it did in Windows 10.