Where is the print screen stored? Where are screenshots saved on PC? Take a screenshot with one button

PrtSC or in other words – Print Screen, – a key that performs the function of taking a screenshot. That is, everything you see on the screen at the moment can be “photographed” and then saved as a graphic image. Many users have heard about this key, but do not know where it saves its files.

The PrtSC key does not save a screenshot to a graphic file. It hangs there until its next replacement.

To get an image, we will need to additionally open Paint, Word, Photoshop or any similar graphics program. Let's go, for example, to Paint. Press ctrl+v, and our image appears in front of us in all its glory. Click “Save” or “Save As” and that’s it – the screenshot is ours.

We wrote more in the article. It’s not only about Paint, but also about creating screenshots using the standard “Scissors” program in Windows 7 and the convenient Lightshot screenshot.

This approach was made specifically so as not to fill the space with pictures and not clog up the computer. For example, It's very convenient when working in Word: took a photo, pasted it into a file and saved it. There are no unnecessary graphics on the computer.

If you need screenshots to be saved immediately, you will need to install a third-party program, such as FC Capture. In it you can immediately set the settings for how to save the file, where, and in what format. In addition to the regular PrtSc key, you can install other keys for your convenience.

Such programs simply start automatically when the computer starts and hang in the tray. They require minimal resources, so they can be safely installed on the weakest computers.

In order to take a picture of the monitor, a special computer function is used, which is called a screenshot. It allows you to copy an exact image of what is currently shown on the screen with maximum accuracy. It is used to prove any events occurring on the screen.

Where are these images located?

Screenshots are required quite often, especially when contacting technical support of various services, in order to prove the reality of your claims. Therefore, for advanced users who do not like to groundlessly prove their rightness, their use is simply necessary. And learning how to take and save screenshots is very simple and does not require special skills. To take a screenshot simply click on Print Screen on your keyboard. This key is in the top row of commands on the right side. The computer will automatically save the image that is on your monitor screen at the exact moment you press this key. Therefore, be careful that the mouse cursor does not block information that is important to you.

Next, the screenshot is saved to your computer’s clipboard, where absolutely all temporarily copied files are located. If necessary, you can easily transfer a screenshot from the clipboard exactly where you need it. Just open the Paint graphics editor, which is standard and pre-installed on most modern systems on PCs and laptops. Just press the insert key combination and your screenshot will be displayed in the graphic editor, after which you can save and edit it as needed.

You can also use the more powerful and functional graphics editor Photoshop to save screenshots. This will be quite a bit more complicated than using Paint to save, but it does have some distinct advantages, such as the ability to do more advanced editing if you need it. In fact, there are many different types of graphic editors where you can save and edit screenshots, but these two editors are the most common and popular, so it is much easier to use them. You can then forward the saved screenshot in the form of a simple image or use it for any need without any difficulties.

How to take a screenshot (shot) of the screen on a computer or laptop with Windows

The first method is the “Print Screen” button

Any keyboard has a special button for taking screenshots. It is called "Print Screen", and sometimes "PrntScrn", "PrtScn", "PrtScr" or "PrtSc".

How to do

If you have computer, click the “Print Screen” button.

If you have laptop, press two buttons simultaneously: “Print Screen” and “Fn”.

If you want to take a screenshot only the active window (program), press “Alt” and “Print Screen” simultaneously on your computer; “Alt”, “Print Screen” and “Fn” - on a laptop.

The screenshot will be saved to the clipboard. Now you can paste it into a letter, photo editor or Word (press the “Ctrl” and “V” buttons simultaneously).

How to save a screenshot as a separate file

After taking a screenshot, click the Start button > All Programs > Accessories > Paint.

Press two buttons at the same time: “Ctrl” and “V”. Your screenshot will appear on the screen.

Press two buttons at the same time: “Ctrl” and “S”.

A window for saving will appear. Write a name for the file and select a location to save it. The file type is better to use JPEG.

Method two - the “Scissors” program

This program is available in Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10.

How to do

Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > Snipping Tool.

The program will start and a cross will appear instead of the mouse cursor. Select the desired portion of the screen.

The screenshot will be saved to the clipboard. Now you can paste it into a letter, photo editor or Word (press the “Ctrl” and “V” buttons simultaneously). You can also write or draw something on the screenshot (pencil and felt-tip pen icons).

A screenshot is a photograph of the screen that can be taken during any operation on

computer. For this purpose, the keyboard has a special “Print Screen” button. But where then can I find this picture, where are the screenshots saved? If you don’t know about this yet, then in this article we will tell you.

How the function and its analogues work

So, in order to take a screenshot, you just need to press one button on the keyboard. In this case, you will not be able to select a specific area, that is, the entire screen and everything that was on it when you pressed the key will be captured on the clipboard. To save a specific area of ​​the screen, it is wiser to use other programs that give you the opportunity to choose what exactly you want to save. For example, a utility built into Windows operating systems called “Scissors”. You can find it on your computer through a search, or in the “Standard Tools” section. How to use it? We launch the program, in the window that opens, click the “Create” button and specify on the screen the area that needs to be saved. Where are screenshots saved after these manipulations?

The answer is quite simple: wherever you point her. Immediately after selecting an area, the program will prompt you to set a location on your computer to place the photo you just took.

But let’s return to the “Print Screen” button and the standard function of saving screenshots. After clicking it, the file is not saved on the disk itself, but is only located in the computer’s memory. You need to go to any editing program, for example Paint, and save a screenshot through the program. What exactly needs to be done, and where are the screenshots saved in this case?

Where can I find screenshots?

If you are interested in the question “where are screenshots of Skype and other programs saved,” then this section is for you. Most often, the location of the files is in the program folder. That is, you need to go to the folder where it is installed (by default it is “Program Files”) and find the “Downloads” folder (or “Downloads”). Also, when saving images, programs ask where to save them. Everything is simple here; you can specify the location where it is more convenient for you to store the file. Please note that even if you took a screenshot of a program, but used the “Print Screen” key, you can only save the image in the way we discussed earlier. We hope that you have received the answer to the question “where are screenshots saved” and now you can easily find them yourself.

When a computer user needs an image of the screen, we are talking about a screenshot - an accurate representation of what is happening on the monitor.

A screenshot of a computer screen in graphic image format is called . You can get such a picture in different ways. The fastest of them involves the use of a scheme built into the OS.

How to take a photo

The Windows operating system provides a simple algorithm for creating a snapshot. To use it, you should find the PrintScreen button in the upper right corner of the keyboard. A single press of this key saves everything that happens on the monitor.

If you want to freeze only the active window, you must use the Alt+PrintScreen combination. Pressing these keys simultaneously will allow you to “cut off” the background, placing only the top window in the picture.

Now all that remains is to “extract” the snapshot from the computer’s memory.

How to save a picture

In new versions of Windows, it is not difficult to find a screenshot. Immediately after pressing the “removing” key combination, a simple image editor appears on the screen. The taken picture is saved in a special folder, which can be found through Explorer.

Windows 7 and its predecessors do not have such a function.

Note! The screen image is not saved as a graphic file, but directly to the clipboard. In simple words, the computer “remembers” the picture taken and stores it that way.

However, RAM is not the place for important documents. As soon as new information is placed on the clipboard, for example, text is copied, the screenshot will immediately disappear. The recorded information is also erased when the OS is restarted or the computer is turned off.

Thus, a snapshot saved using the standard scheme must be immediately retrieved from the RAM. The easiest way is to use a graphic editor. For example, the same standard Paint. Depending on the specific software, a special algorithm may be used, but in most cases it is enough to use the standard Ctrl+V key combination.

After it appears on the screen, it is edited or immediately saved to the hard drive. You can select any of the available extensions, and also specify the desired folder for saving.

Scissors

Windows 7 has another function for saving an image. To find it, go to the Start menu and go to the Accessories tab. Find the item “Scissors” and select it.

Once the required area of ​​the screen is selected, the image opens in a small editor. It can be changed and saved. By default, the program saves the picture in the “Pictures” folder in the user’s documents. You can choose a different path for the file.

Screen capture programs

In some cases, using the standard Windows scheme is inconvenient. Especially if you have to take screenshots often. For these purposes, you can download special programs.

Such software allows you not only to save a photo, but also to edit it with a lot of tools. For example, take a video of the screen or add a watermark to an image.

These same programs make it possible to save pictures to your computer, as well as receive a link to them located in cloud storage.

After taking a screenshot, most programs immediately ask where to save the resulting image. This feature can be configured by default by specifying a specific folder for this purpose.

When considering the most popular programs for taking screenshots, it is important to determine their strengths and weaknesses:

Browser extensions

Screen capture may be necessary while surfing the Internet. To take a browser screenshot, standard programs may be inconvenient. In this case, it is better to use browser extensions that will “capture” the screen without capturing the taskbar and address bar.

Yandex browser

An extension that allows you to take an instant screen photo is already built into the new version of Yandex Browser. To use it, just activate the function by following the following chain:

Using the extension is very simple. Just click on the feather and select the desired area of ​​the screen. The rest of the space will become "inactive" gray. Toolbars for working with the image will appear next to the selected area.

Mozilla Firefox browser

Fox Browser, like its advanced counterparts, has a built-in utility for creating snapshots. Click on Explorer and select “Page Actions”. A menu appears, at the bottom of which there is the option “Take a screenshot”. Click on it and get a photo.

You can also right-click anywhere on the screen to activate the “image capture” function. The interactive tooltip contains a “Screenshot” sub-item.

In Mozilla Firefox, you can take a screenshot of both the area displayed on the screen and the entire page the user is viewing.

Another advantage of Mozilla is the two-week storage of screenshots taken on the Firefox cloud.

Screenshot in Opera

Opera developers follow trends, so their brainchild was one of the first to acquire the Screenshot function. To activate it, just go to your browser settings, where you can find the “Screenshot” tab.

The button combination “Ctrl+Shift+5” or the camera icon on the sidebar of the browser has the same function.

Opera allows you to capture both the entire screen and its individual fragments. Another useful function is editing the resulting frame and adding effects, vector elements and even stickers to it.

There are many ways to take a photo from . Each user can choose the most convenient one for themselves. You should look for saved screenshots in the place provided by the selected program.

Video - Where are screenshots saved on Windows 7.10