Windows 11 screenshots could soon work differently, breaking 30 years of tradition

Date:
Tue, 11 Apr 2023 09:45:54 +0000

Description:
Windows 11 screenshot change might sound seriously annoying but dont worry too much about it.

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Windows 11 could get a change to the way the Print Screen (PrtScn) key works which might annoy some users but the good news is that even in testing right now, theres a remedy for any irritation that might be caused.

Windows Latest flagged up this move which is present for those testing preview build 22621.1546 and build 22624.1546 in the beta channel.

As youre likely aware, pressing Print Screen on the keyboard (usually at the top-right of the deck) normally takes a grab of whats on the screen at the time and places that in the clipboard, so you can then paste it into whatever you wish (an image editor perhaps, or a Word document, or messaging
platform).

This has been the case for a long time (since Windows 3.1, over 30 years ago, we think or certainly since Windows 95, anyway).

In this new preview build (released four days ago), Microsoft has made it so that pressing the key now opens the Snipping Tool instead.

Its quite a small change, but with a potentially more sizeable impact on the workflow of many people. However, as mentioned at the outset, theres good
news for those who hate this idea, and thats the presence of a switch in the beta build to turn off this option.

This is nestling in the Settings panel, under Accessibility > Keyboard, where theres a Use the Print Screen key to open Snipping Tool slider and you can just switch this off.

In that case, Windows 11 will revert to its default behavior of copying the screenshot directly to the clipboard. Analysis: Making Windows more user-friendly

Whats the big idea here, then? Well, its really about making Windows 11 more friendly to complete newcomers.

Grizzled veterans of the computing world will, of course, be very familiar with the fact that if you press Print Screen, the OS will copy an image of
the screen to the clipboard you can then paste elsewhere. But theres no indication to those completely new to Windows that anything has happened no prompt, message, or even a little sound effect to indicate something has occurred when the key is pressed.

What Microsoft is doing in popping up the Snipping Tool is giving a firm indication that the screen has been grabbed. And moreover, the user has the ability to edit that grab there and then in the tool, quickly cropping it,
for example, before saving the image. So, this is kind of a double-pronged move to help less tech-savvy types know whats happening when hitting PrtScn.

Fortunately, with the ability to change the Print Screen behavior present in Settings, Microsoft is giving those more familiar with the way Windows works the choice to stick with the current scheme of things. The worry for some folks could be that eventually, Microsoft will discard this old way of
working entirely

At any rate, theres no guarantee that any change applied in testing will make it to the release version of Windows 11. Microsoft may just scrap the idea completely, especially if theres negative feedback from testers (or indeed a lack of positive feedback, perhaps).

If you think Print Screen is rather oddly named, by the way you might be wondering why it isnt called Screenshot or Grab Screen, for example well,
the answer is that way back when, the key literally printed the contents of the screen (sending it straight to your printer). After the usefulness of
that ability faded away, it was changed to take an image of whatevers on the screen.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/windows-11-screenshots-could-soon-work-differen tly-breaking-30-years-of-tradition


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