How to Screenshot on a Laptop Without a Print Screen Button (7 Methods That Work)

I have owned a laptop with no Print Screen key for three years, and the first week was genuinely annoying. Every tutorial online said “just press PrtScn,” and I kept staring at a keyboard that skipped straight from Insert to Delete. If your keyboard looks like that, this guide is for you.

Learning how to screenshot on laptop without printscreen button is easier than it looks. Windows 10 and Windows 11 both ship with several built-in screenshot tools that never touch the missing key, and one of them takes about two seconds once it is muscle memory. Below are seven methods that actually work, starting with the fastest.

Why Some Laptops Skip the Print Screen Key

Keyboard makers are obsessed with thin bezels and compact layouts. On 13 and 14 inch laptops from HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Asus, the top function row often gets compressed, and Print Screen is usually the first casualty. Some gaming laptops drop it too, burying it under an Fn combination instead of printing it on its own key.

The good news: Windows does not care whether the key is printed on your keyboard. The screenshot functions still exist in the operating system. You just call them a different way.

Method 1: Press Win + Shift + S (the One to Memorize)

This is the shortcut I use ten times a day. Hold the Windows key, tap Shift and S together, and your screen dims with a small toolbar at the top.

Drag a box around whatever you want to capture. That is Rectangle mode, and it is the default. The toolbar also offers Freeform (draw any shape), Window (click any open window to capture just it), and Fullscreen (grabs everything).

The moment you release the mouse, the screenshot lands on your clipboard, and a small notification pops up in the bottom right corner. Click it to open the Snipping Tool, where you can crop, draw arrows, highlight text, and save the file wherever you like. Or skip all that and press Ctrl + V to paste it straight into an email, a Word document, or Paint.

This works on both Windows 10 and Windows 11, on every keyboard, and it never needs the Fn key.

Method 2: Open the Snipping Tool App and Use the Delay Timer

Sometimes you need to screenshot a menu that disappears the moment you press a key. That is what the delay timer is for.

Click Start, type “snipping tool,” and open the app. Click the little clock icon to delay the capture by 3, 5, or 10 seconds, then hit New. Open your menu during the countdown, and the tool grabs it when the timer runs out.

The full app gives you the same four capture modes plus basic annotation tools, so for anything fiddly, like tooltips, dropdowns, or hover states, this beats the quick shortcut.

Method 3: Press Fn + Windows + Space for an Instant Full Screenshot

This one comes straight from Microsoft’s own support pages, and it is the official answer for devices without a PrtScn key. Press Fn + Windows key + Spacebar together.

Unlike the Snipping Tool, this saves the file automatically. Open File Explorer, go to Pictures, and you will find a Screenshots folder with your capture inside, named with the date. No pasting, no save dialog, nothing to forget.

On some laptops the Fn key needs to be held deliberately or toggled with Fn Lock, so if it does not fire the first time, press the keys one after the other instead of all at once.

Method 4: Click Print Screen on the On-Screen Keyboard

Windows has a full virtual keyboard hiding in plain sight, and it includes a PrtScn key even if your physical keyboard does not. Click Start, type “on-screen keyboard,” and open it. Then click the PrtScn button on the virtual keyboard.

That copies your entire screen to the clipboard, exactly as if you had pressed a real Print Screen key. Open Paint or any other app, press Ctrl + V to paste it, then save. It is not the fastest method, but it is foolproof and needs zero memorization.

Method 5: Use the Xbox Game Bar (Win + G)

Press Windows key + G and the Xbox Game Bar slides in, even if you never play games. Click the little camera icon in the Capture widget, and it takes a full screenshot.

Game Bar saves captures automatically to Videos and then Captures, which is a different folder from the Snipping Tool, so do not panic if you cannot find your file in Pictures. This method shines when you need a quick full-screen grab without opening any app first.

Method 6: Remap a Spare Key with Microsoft PowerToys

If you take screenshots all day, remapping is the permanent fix. PowerToys is a free, official Microsoft utility (grab it from the Microsoft Store), and its Keyboard Manager lets you reassign any key you like.

Open PowerToys, go to Keyboard Manager, and remap a key you never use (F9, right Ctrl, whatever is free on your layout) to the Print Screen function. From then on, that key behaves exactly like a real PrtScn key.

It takes five minutes to set up once, and you never think about the missing key again.

Method 7: Plug In Any External Keyboard

The low-tech answer that always works: any USB keyboard, even a ten-dollar one from a drawer, has a Print Screen key. Plug it in, press it, done. If your laptop mostly sits on a desk with a monitor, this is honestly the path of least resistance.

Where Your Screenshots Go (So You Stop Losing Them)

Half the confusion with Windows screenshots is that the files land in different places depending on the method:

• Win + Shift + S and the On-Screen Keyboard send the shot to your clipboard. Paste it somewhere with Ctrl + V, or click the notification to save it.
• Fn + Windows + Space saves automatically to Pictures, then Screenshots.
• The Xbox Game Bar saves automatically to Videos, then Captures.

Screenshots pile up fast, by the way. If your phone is drowning in them too, here is how to free up space on Android without deleting photos. And if you ever delete the one screenshot you actually needed, these methods can recover deleted photos on Android without a backup.

Quick Answers

Why doesn’t my laptop have a Print Screen key?

Compact keyboard layouts. To keep 13 and 14 inch laptops slim, makers like HP, Dell, and Lenovo compress the top row and drop the least-used keys. Print Screen is almost always the first to go, sometimes hidden behind an Fn combination instead of printed on its own key.

I pressed Win + Shift + S and nothing happened. What now?

First, check that you pressed all three keys at once. If the overlay still does not appear, open Settings, then Accessibility, then Keyboard, and make sure the Snipping Tool shortcut is enabled. On managed work laptops, IT policies sometimes disable screen capture entirely. In that case, Methods 2 and 4 usually still work because they do not use the overlay.

Which method saves the file automatically?

Fn + Windows + Space saves to Pictures and then Screenshots, and the Xbox Game Bar saves to Videos and then Captures. Win + Shift + S and the On-Screen Keyboard only copy to the clipboard, so you have to paste or save manually.

Do these methods work on Windows 10 as well?

Yes. Win + Shift + S, the Snipping Tool, the On-Screen Keyboard, and the Game Bar all exist on Windows 10. PowerToys supports Windows 10 too. The steps are identical; only the Snipping Tool’s look is slightly older.

The Bottom Line

Missing Print Screen key, zero problem. Memorize Win + Shift + S for everyday snips, use Fn + Windows + Space when you want the file saved automatically, and remap a key with PowerToys if you screenshot constantly. That covers everything the missing key used to do, and the Snipping Tool’s annotation is arguably better than the old paste-into-Paint routine anyway.

And if the screenshot is something the whole room should see, you can even cast your phone to a TV without WiFi to show it on the big screen.