How to take a shadowless screenshot on Windows 10?

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8

Using Alt+Print on the keyboard, a screenshot of the currently active window is copied to the clipboard.

Unfortunately, on Windows 10 this also takes the area of the window's shadow into the screenshot:

enter image description here

As you can see, above image is a screenshot of the "Run" dialog box which also has the background of the shadow areas left, right and bottom shine through.

This is what I would expect:

enter image description here

Above image is manually modified and omits the shadow areas, showing only the actual window area.

What I've tried:

I've tried the Snipping Tool and it works as expected, i.e. it does not include the shadow areas.

What bothers me is that it is way more complicated to use the Snipping Tool compared to a simple Alt+Print.

My question:

Is it possible with built-in keyboard shortcuts of Windows 10 to have a screenshot that does exclude the shadow areas?

Uwe Keim

Posted 2015-09-03T11:54:20.763

Reputation: 1 747

3You should post your solution as an answer instead of putting it in the question itself. – Ramhound – 2015-09-03T12:00:03.497

@Ramhound I know; I just wanted to wait, maybe other users have better answers. – Uwe Keim – 2015-09-03T12:01:38.670

2You don't have to accept your answer, of course, your question is limited to keyboard shortcut solutions, and there is only one correct answer. – Ramhound – 2015-09-03T12:03:36.497

1Alternatively, tools like puush and shareX will do this with a "capture current window" hotkey. – Seiyria – 2015-09-03T14:03:18.470

3My desktop running build 10240 takes shadowless screenshots with Alt+PrtScr just fine. Judging by the colored title bars in your screenshots, this looks to me like a bug with 10532. – BoltClock – 2015-09-03T16:20:50.960

1

Notice also how it doesn't even capture the shadow properly - the top part seems to be completely missing, and the sides and bottom aren't nearly wide enough to contain the full shadow size. For comparison, here's the same dialog captured using Shotty on build 10240, which accurately replicates the actual shadows rendered by the DWM. Pretty sure this is buggy behavior.

– BoltClock – 2015-09-04T03:17:40.430

Answers

79

Out of curiosity I've tried Shift+Alt+Print and it works!

I.e. when using the Shift key, the shadow area is omitted in the screenshot:

enter image description here

Update:

I'm using the latest "Fast Ring" version of Windows 10; maybe this is a feature they added recently in this version?

Uwe Keim

Posted 2015-09-03T11:54:20.763

Reputation: 1 747

4Does Left Shift + Left Alt + Print Screen still trigger a prompt offering to turn on the High Contrast accessibility option in Win10? – Dan is Fiddling by Firelight – 2015-09-03T14:27:30.917

@DanNeely I've just tried; at least not on my system. I've had installed "f.lux", maybe this interfers with this shortcut? – Uwe Keim – 2015-09-03T14:49:35.527

2@DanNeely Yes it does. Looks like you need to use either Right Shift or Right Alt to prevent that from coming up. – Jesan Fafon – 2015-09-03T16:08:47.030

Nice find! Btw it doesn't work on my system (windows 10 pro x64, brazilian portuguese). Shift+Alt+PrtSc brings up the "High Contrast" mode... I tried using Left Shift as well but it gives me the same as Alt+PrtSc. – Marc.2377 – 2015-09-03T17:25:44.443

@Marc.2377 Right Shift + Any Alt + Print Screen works for me (Left Shift + Left Alt + Print Screen gives me the higher contrast option) – YoYoYonnY – 2015-09-03T20:50:38.907

1The shift key is unnecessary - Alt + Print Screen will take a screenshot of the currently focussed window without the shadow. – Sly_cardinal – 2015-09-04T01:30:11.877

12If it is indeed a new feature, then I'm seriously disappointed that Microsoft didn't fix this all the way back in Windows 7. It seems kind of pointless to do it only now when all the transparency and rounded corners are gone and we're back to rectangles with sharp corners that don't look funny when captured with Alt+PrtScr. – BoltClock – 2015-09-04T03:26:13.930

1Confirmed, this was the same in Windows 7. I just tried left-shift, right-alt and print-screen together on Win7 and it silently copies to clipboard a shadow-free screenshot of the current window (although things behind the translucent aero stuff, and black pixels around the rounded bottom corners, are still visible). Left-shift, left-alt and print-screen pops up the "high contrast" option. Never knew about this... – user56reinstatemonica8 – 2015-09-04T19:17:18.953

@user568458 In Win7 both Alt-Print Screen and Alt-Shift-Print Screen (with at least one right side key) both produce non-shadowed screenshots. What's new in 10 (or possibly 8.x, don't have a way to test now) is that the shift version produces legacy behavior, while the two key version captures some of the shadow. – Dan is Fiddling by Firelight – 2015-09-04T20:31:32.780

@Sly_cardinal Your right or at least I am getting a shadow free image when I use Alt-Print Screen. I wonder what is different with Uwe Keim's PC? – Kelly Thomas – 2015-09-06T05:45:02.517

I want to have the shadow (like in OSX screenshots) is there a way to get it? On my Windows 10 version all the mentioned key combinations produce and image with no shadow. – Erik Berkun-Drevnig – 2016-10-04T17:14:56.847

You could open e.g. https://unicolor.co/white make it full screen, place your window to screenshot before the white background, screenshot both together and then use something like Paint .net to crop manually around them shadow.

– Uwe Keim – 2016-10-04T17:34:04.977

Asked: 2015-09-03T11:54:20.763

Viewed: 5 996 times

Active: 2017-09-09T09:55:35.433