Microsoft has been hard at work on Windows 11 updates, from more Start Menu tweaks to changes to default apps. Now the company is experimenting with changes to the Print Screen key under Windows 11.
There are many ways to take a screenshot on Windows 11 (and Windows 10), but if your keyboard has a dedicated Print Screen key, pressing that will instantly take a screenshot and save it to the clipboard. That has been the default behavior for many years — going as far back as Windows 95 — but Microsoft is now testing something different in test builds of Windows 11.
Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23419 is now being tested in the Dev Channel of the Windows Insider program, which now opens the Snipping Tool when you press the Print Screen key, instead of instantly taking a screenshot and saving it to the clipboard. Microsoft says the option can be reverted from Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard, and if you’ve changed that setting before, nothing will change.
The many other methods of taking a screenshot in Windows 11 aren’t changing — at least, for now. There’s also a chance Microsoft could revert this behavior before it rolls out to everyone. The new behavior might be simpler for new Windows users to understand, since there’s no visual indication after pressing Print Screen that something happened, but it might be annoying for long-time users.
Microsoft didn’t mention if Win + Fn + Spacebar will still work for immediately taking a screenshot. If not, changing the setting back should also do the trick.
Source: Windows Blog