Microsoft News: Print Screen key on your Windows 11 PC keyboard will now open Snipping Tool

Before Microsoft introduced the Snipping Tool in Windows, pressing the Print Screen on the keyboard was the only solution to capture the entire screen quickly. Microsoft improved the Print Screen key behavior to launch the Snipping tool when pressed. However, launching the Snipping Tool was not the default behavior of the key until now.

If you are running Windows 11, pressing the Print Screen will not open the Snipping Tool. But you can change this behavior to open the Snipping Tool instead of capturing what’s on the screen in the legacy way. Microsoft recently changed the default behavior in Windows 11 KB5025310 update for Beta Channel Insiders. For those running the KB5025310 update, pressing the Print Screen key will now open the Snipping Tool by default.

However, you can still go back to the old way of how Print Screen could capture an image of your entire screen and copy it to the Clipboard. If you want to do that, follow the below steps:

1. Open the Settings app by pressing the Win key + I button on your keyboard.
2. Click Accessibility.
3. Scroll down till you find the Keyboard option.
4. Scroll to find the Use the Print screen key to open Snipping Tool toggle switch.
   
5. Turn off the toggle switch.

Meanwhile, you can launch the Snipping Tool in another way, which is by pressing the Win key + Shift + S on your keyboard. Also, if you want to capture the screenshot of an active window, you can press Alt + Print Screen. In other words, you have many ways to capture screenshots on Windows 11, and you need to choose what works for you.