If you don't want to screenshot a rectangular portion of the Windows desktop, you can also choose to freeform sketch a shape, capture the active window or the full screen.

Whatever you call them, the keyboard shortcut pulls up the right one. We should note here that, in Windows 11, the built-in screenshot tool is called 'Snipping Tool' and, in Windows 10, there's both the Snipping Tool and the Snip & Sketch Tool, the latter of which is the newer one that Microsoft recommends. Whatever the case, hit Windows Key + Shift + S and the Windows Snipping tool will launch, immediately giving you a rectangular box you can draw around whatever you want to capture from Windows 10 or Windows 11. It could be a portion of a web page in your browser or a series of windows. Perhaps you want to take a Windows screenshot that shows just a small portion of the desktop.

Snipping Tool Captures Regions in Windows So, for example, if your program has a pop-up menu that appears in a child window, it will only capture the child window, not the parent behind it. It's important to note that this only screenshots an active window, not an entire app if the app has more than one window. If you hit Alt + PrtScr, Windows 10 or 11 will capture just the active window and copy it to your clipboard. More often than not, you don't want to screenshot your entire desktop, just the relevant program you're using. (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) Alt + Print Screen Captures Active Window to Clipboard

Snip and sketch screenshot