How to take a screen­shot on a Chrome­book

To take a screen­shot on your Windows computer, you can use the [Windows] + [Print] shortcut. But if you want to screen­shot on Chrome­book, you’ll need to use [Ctrl] + [Show windows] for the whole screen or [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Show windows] for a selected area of the screen.

How to screen­shot on Chrome­book: A step-by-step guide

Chrome­books come pre­in­stalled with Google’s Chrome OS operating system. As such, common Windows and Mac ap­plic­a­tions won’t work on Chrome­books. This has ad­vant­ages and dis­ad­vant­ages. Chrome­books include all the popular Google ap­plic­a­tions like the Chrome browser, Gmail, Calendar, Maps, Documents, and Meet. In addition, they also come with 5GB of free cloud storage in Google Drive. Chrome­books are designed for online and cloud services. Their slim con­fig­ur­a­tion ensures a smooth per­form­ance. However, Chrome­books are a little different to use and this applies to taking screen­shots on them as well.

For example, to take a Windows 11 screen­shot, the shortcut [Windows] + [Print] is handy. To take a screen­shot on a Mac, use [Shift] + [Command] + [3] instead. On a Chrome­book, the keyboard shortcuts are different.

To take a screen­shot on a Chrome­book, follow these steps:

How to take a screen­shot of the entire screen

Step 1: Press [Ctrl] + [Show windows]. The [Show windows] key is located in the top row on the Chrome­book keyboard. It can be iden­ti­fied by the icon con­tain­ing a window with two ad­di­tion­al dashes to the right of it. If you’re using a Windows keyboard with your Chrome­book, press [Ctrl] + [F5] instead.

Step 2: Chrome OS will now take a screen­shot of the entire screen and store it auto­mat­ic­ally in ‘Downloads’.

How to take a screen­shot of a section of your screen

Step 1: Press [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Show windows].

Step 2: The cursor should now become a crosshair. Use this to specify the area you would like to take a screen­shot of. You may need to select ‘Screen­shot’ in the menu and then select whether you want to screen­shot the entire screen, a section of the screen, or a specific window.

Step 3: Once you’ve taken the screen­shot, you can find it in your ‘Downloads’ folder.

How to make a recording of your screen

Step 1: To record your screen, press the shortcut [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Show windows] and select the menu option ‘Record screen’.

Step 2: When recording your screen, you also have the option to record the entire screen, a selected section of the screen, or a specific window.

Step 3: When you are ready to stop recording, you can click on ‘End recording’. The recording will auto­mat­ic­ally be stored in the ‘Downloads’ folder.

How to find screen­shots in the default location

The ‘Downloads’ folder of your Chrome­book serves as the default folder and location for screen­shots and screen re­cord­ings. To change this or to search for specific screen­shots and re­cord­ings, press [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Show windows]. Then go to ‘Settings’ or the gear icon and ‘Select folder’. Now, you can determine where you want your re­cord­ings to be auto­mat­ic­ally stored in the future.

If you are in­ter­ested in creating screen­shots in the Chrome browser, and not spe­cific­ally on a Chrome­book, you can simply use the default screen­shot shortcut on your keyboard. For Mac, press [Shift] + [Command] + [3] and for Windows, press [Windows] + [Print]. You can also use Chrome screen­shot ex­ten­sions like the Chrome Capture tool.