Taking a screenshot in Windows used to require pressing the “Print Screen” (PrtScn) key on your keyboard, which silently copied an image of your entire monitor to the invisible clipboard. You then had to open an image editor like MS Paint, paste the image, crop out what you didn’t need, and save it. Windows 11 completely overhauled this process with the modernized Snipping Tool. Instead of capturing everything, the Snipping Tool allows you to instantly draw a box around the exact area you want to capture. However, to make taking screenshots truly effortless, you should enable the dedicated Snipping Tool keyboard shortcut.
The Default Shortcut (Win + Shift + S)
By default, Microsoft has hard-coded a three-key shortcut to instantly launch the Snipping Tool screen overlay. If you press and hold the Windows Key + Shift + S simultaneously, your screen will slightly dim, and a small menu will appear at the top center of your monitor.
From this menu, your mouse cursor will turn into a crosshair, allowing you to click and drag a perfect rectangle over the specific text, image, or window you want to capture. The moment you release your mouse button, the image is snapped, copied to your clipboard, and temporarily saved as a notification.
How to Bind the Snipping Tool to the Print Screen Key
While `Win + Shift + S` is useful, it requires two hands and finger gymnastics. A much better solution is to reprogram the solitary Print Screen (PrtScn) key on your keyboard so that it launches the Snipping Tool overlay instead of silently copying the whole screen.
In newer versions of Windows 11, Microsoft finally added a simple setting to make this change.
- Click the Start button and click on the Settings gear icon (or press
Windows Key + I). - In the left-hand navigation sidebar, click on Accessibility.
- Scroll down the right side of the window until you find the “Interaction” section.
- Click on Keyboard.
- Scroll down until you see the “On-screen keyboard, access keys, and Print screen” section.
- Look for the setting labelled Use the Print screen key to open Snipping Tool (or on some versions, it may say “Use the Print screen key to open screen capture”).
- Click the toggle switch to turn it On.
Applying the Change
Windows notes beneath the toggle switch that you may need to restart your computer for this specific keyboard change to take full effect. Once rebooted, you will never need to stretch your fingers for the three-key combo again. A single tap of the Print Screen key will instantly pause your screen and summon the Snipping Tool crosshairs, ready for you to capture exactly what you need.