What does "Win Button" + "Print Screen" do on Windows 8?

Today I was going to System Properties with Win+Break and accidentally pressed Win+Print Screen. By doing this, Windows 8 RTM x86 lowered the display brightness for 2 seconds and then returned to normal.

I checked that the printscreen was copied to clipboard by pasting it on Paint, but I didn't notice any difference from a normal printscreen (by pressing only Print Screen button). I also checked that Windows 7 doesn't have the same behavior.

So, is this just a new "animation" for the printscreen process on Windows 8, or does it actually have a functional difference from the traditional method?

Diogo

Posted 2012-08-20T14:38:28.357

Reputation: 28 202

Not mentioned on this chart: http://windowsteamblog.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Blogs-Components-WeblogFiles/00-00-00-53-48-metablogapi/4667.Keyboard_2D00_shortcuts_2D00_for_2D00_Windows_2D00_8_5F00_5756566F.png

– Der Hochstapler – 2012-08-20T14:42:56.023

Answers

It takes and saves the screenshot. It places the saved screenshot into your pictures folder as a PNG.

For reference: Windows 8: Capture Screenshots (en-US)

user142485

Posted 2012-08-20T14:38:28.357

Reputation: 1 743

1Lol, I didn't know about that. It already worked on Windows 7? – Diogo – 2012-08-20T14:43:32.530

2@Diogo: Doesn't seem like this existed in Windows 7. – Der Hochstapler – 2012-08-20T14:44:09.563

@OliverSalzburg I just checked on my Windows-7 machine and didn't noticed any change on my picture images... I would like to find a reference for this feature on some Windows 8 doc... – Diogo – 2012-08-20T14:45:24.663

@Diogo: Nothing official, but http://www.itworld.com/software/258746/take-screenshots-windows-8 http://www.windows7hacker.com/index.php/2012/04/windows-8-guide-how-to-take-screenshots/ http://blog.laptopmag.com/how-to-take-a-screenshot-in-windows-8 Everybody but us knows ;D

– Der Hochstapler – 2012-08-20T14:47:18.217

3@OliverSalzburg Heh, it's a very nice feature... Now we don't need "Paint" anymore :D – Diogo – 2012-08-20T14:49:02.380

@Diogo you will need the paint at all when you need to edit the shot :D – avirk – 2012-08-20T14:52:29.347

any way to take screenshot of only the focused window and not the whole screen and save it automatically? – Moab – 2012-08-20T15:02:51.653

@Moab I do not think there is as of now. – user142485 – 2012-08-20T15:10:19.670

found some of the new kbrd shorcuts for W8 here...http://www.pcworld.com/article/251022/windows_8_consumer_preview_keyboard_shortcuts.html

– Moab – 2012-08-20T15:11:30.910

@Moab I don't have 8 to try it but have you tried Win + Alt + PrintScr? – Scott Chamberlain – 2012-10-17T22:30:09.770

@ScottChamberlain yep that was the first thing I tried. – Moab – 2012-10-18T01:51:01.573

As Ben and user142485 point out, Win + Print Screen takes a screenshot, dims the screen to let you know something happened, and saves a .png file to your pictures. This is an enhanced version of the screenshot functionality that has been in Windows going back to at least Windows 95. It might have even been in Microsoft Bob or Me, but thank goodness I never had the chance to find out. Good-bye Paint, or Gimp, or whatever else you used to paste the screen shot into before saving.

Curiously, Alt + Print Screen, which has also been around for just as long, continues to behave the way it did in previous versions of Windows. It captures a screen shot of the active window. However, the screen doesn't dim, and the screen shot is NOT saved to your pictures, so you'll need to continue to use Paint in this scenario.

Jon Crowell

Posted 2012-08-20T14:38:28.357

Reputation: 1 864

1I'm not sure if my keyboard doesn't support the simultaneous presses of Alt+Win+Print Screen or if windows doesn't support it. But that combination would be very useful! – Jochem Kuijpers – 2013-11-05T19:44:42.887

To add to the other answer; I suppose it lowers the brightness to let you know a screen shot just occurred, just like on an iPhone, or when a photo is captured from Photo Booth on a MacBook.

Ben

Posted 2012-08-20T14:38:28.357

Reputation: 264