How To Take Window-Only Screenshots In Windows 10

When you’re helping a friend or relative accomplish a certain task in Windows, say, over the email or instant messaging, a simple screenshot, taken with a stroke of the Print Screen key, are a very easy way to get your point across. Those plain screenshots may not always cut it for articles or proper guides, however. Those of us in the business of writing technical pieces, whether that is for a publication or a user manual, often find the need to use images of specific portions of the screen – mostly, whatever is within a particular window.

Now, you could crop a screenshot using the simplest of image editing tools, but why unnecessarily increase the steps in your task when there is a solution built right into Windows? You can take a ready-to-use screenshot of any open window following the steps outlined below.

1. Launch the Start menu, search for, and open the Snipping Tool application.

Update: the application will soon be discontinued in favor of the new Snip & Sketch app, which does not currently seem to have the Window-only capture feature (10/05/2018).

2. Make sure the window you want to capture is open and not minimized.

3. Within the app, click Mode and select Window Snip from the drop-down menu.

4. Select the window you want to capture. You should see a red border around the window you are about to select.

5. Hit the Save icon to save your screenshot to a destination of choice.

Adding a Delay to Capture Menus & Highlighted Items

If you’re looking to capture the window along with a context menu, drop-down, or highlighted item, you can add a Delay of up to 5 seconds for this purpose. This delay is added after you activate the Windows Snip mode in step 3 and should give you time to set up your ideal shot. Just remember that it any menus or items spilling out of the window’s bounds will be cropped out of the captured shot. You may have to resize the window to compensate for that.

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