How to take a screen and video capture on Mac and Windows

If you need to show support what you are seeing if you get an error message or to show the steps you are taking before you get an error, a screenshot or PrintScreen is the best way to do this!  Here is how to use the screenshot keyboard shortcuts for either macOS or Windows!

Windows Keyboard Shortcut

Windows natively allow you to capture the entire screen or the active screen without the help of third-party software. Here’s how you do it.

• Press PrtScn. By hitting the PrtScn button, it saves the entire screen in Clipboard, awaiting you to paste it in text editors (I.e., MS Words) or image editors for further actions. You can paste the screenshot into any program that displays images, like Paint or Microsoft Word.

• Press Alt + PrtScn. By holding down the Alt key with the PrtScn key, this will capture only the screen of the active window. This copies the active window to the clipboard, which you can paste into another program. 

• Press the Windows key + Shift + S. The screen will dim and the mouse pointer will change. You can drag to select a portion of the screen to capture. The screenshot will be copied to the clipboard, which you can paste into another program. (This shortcut only works if you have the latest version of Windows 10 installed, called the Windows 10 Creators Update.)

• Press the Windows key + PrtScn. This saves the entire screen as an image file. You can find it in the "Pictures" folder, in a subfolder called "Screenshots."

macOS Keyboard Shortcut

As compared to Windows, macOS offers more options when it comes to screen-capturing. With macOS, you can capture the entire screen, the active screen, or any pre-determined region.

4 ways to take screenshots in macOS

1. Take a screenshot of the entire screen

Press Command + Shift + 3 to capture screenshot of the entire screen. The screenshot you’ll take will be saved on your desktop.

2. Take a screenshot of a specific region

Press Command + Shift + 4 and your cursor will turn from arrow to crosshair. Move and drag the crosshair cursor on the region you want to take a screenshot of and it will be saved on your desktop.

Note: You can hold Shift or Option key while dragging to change how you make the selection.

3. Take a screenshot of a specific window

Press Command + Shift + 4, then press the Space key. This will turn your cursor from crosshair to camera icon. Now move your cursor to any window you wish to take the screenshot of and click once. The screenshot will be saved on your desktop.

4. Take a screenshot of the Touch Bar

If you own one of the newest MacBook Pro and want to take a screenshot of it’s Touch Bar, then press Command + Shift + 6.

How to take a Video Screen Capture on Mac and Windows

For Mac: Record Videos and Audio

The QuickTime application included with your Mac isn’t just a video-playback tool. It includes basic video-editing features for trimming video files, combining multiple files, and recording your videos. These features work with audio files, too!

QuickTime also has built-in recording features, making it a quick way to record a video or audio file on a Mac. It can record via a variety of sources — using your Mac’s webcam and audio to record a typical video is only one of them. It can also record your Mac’s desktop to create a screencast.

You’ll first need to open QuickTime to do this, so you can do that by pressing Command + Space to open Spotlight search, typing QuickTime, and pressing Enter to launch it.

For Windows:

If you want quickly record any application’s window without any third-party software, you can do it on Windows 10. This relies on the Game DVR feature, which is designed for capturing PC gameplay—but which can capture any application’s window.

To do this, just press Windows+G in any application on Windows 10. The Game Bar will appear. Select “Yes, this is a game” even if the application isn’t a game.