You press the Print Screen key and nothing seems to happen. In most cases the key still works. It may only be copying the screen to the clipboard without saving a file, a Windows 11 update may have sent it to the Snipping Tool, or a laptop may need the Fn key held down. Another app can also grab the key before Windows does, and less often the keyboard or its driver is at fault. Go through the fixes below in order, starting with the most common, and press the key again after every change, which tells you which one fixed it.
Change what the Print Screen key does
Windows 11 updates can make Print Screen open the Snipping Tool instead of just copying the screen. If you expected the old behavior, it looks like the key is broken, when it is simply doing a different job. Check the setting first. On Windows 10 the same switch sits under Ease of Access, then Keyboard.
- Press Win + I to open Settings.
- Select Accessibility, then Keyboard.
- Find the Print screen switch that makes the key open screen capture.
- Turn it off if you want the key to copy the whole screen to the clipboard. Leave it on if you want it to open the Snipping Tool.
- Restart the PC if nothing changes, then press the key again.
Hold Fn when you press Print Screen on a laptop
On many laptops, Print Screen shares a key with another function and only works with a modifier. Press Fn + PrtScn together and see if a screenshot is taken. This also matters after you switch to a compact or external keyboard, where the extra function is easy to forget. If it works with Fn, you have found the cause.
Paste to check whether the screenshot was taken
Pressing PrtScn on its own does not create a file. It copies the whole screen to the clipboard, so you will see no message and find nothing in your folders. For a file saved automatically, use Win + PrtScn instead and look in the Screenshots folder inside Pictures. To check that the key works:
- Press PrtScn.
- Open Paint or any image editor.
- Press Ctrl + V. If the screen appears, the key is fine and the screenshot simply was not saved anywhere yet. Save the picture from the editor.
Stop other apps from taking the Print Screen key
Only one program can own the key at a time. If more than one asks for it, the one that loads last usually wins and the others get nothing. Cloud-sync apps are the most common thief, because they act on the key the moment you press it, before anything else can use the image.
- OneDrive and Dropbox both have an option to save your screenshots automatically. Open each app's settings and turn that option off, then try PrtScn again.
- Capture tools such as Snagit assign Print Screen as their hotkey. Open the tool's settings and change its hotkey, or close the tool.
- If you are not sure which program is responsible, close your background programs one at a time and test the key after each.
Try another keyboard or USB port
A dead or loose key can look like a software problem. If you use a wired keyboard, plug it into a different USB port. If you can, connect another keyboard and press PrtScn on it. When the key works there, the first keyboard is at fault and needs repair or replacing. Also look at wired and wireless connections: a loose cable or a keyboard out of range can drop key presses.
Update or reinstall the keyboard driver
Sometimes the keyboard driver is out of date or damaged, which can stop single keys from responding. This tends to appear after a large Windows update, and refreshing it takes only a few minutes.
- Right-click the Start button and open Device Manager.
- Expand Keyboards.
- Right-click your keyboard and choose Update driver, then Search automatically for drivers.
- If Windows reports that the newest driver is in place, right-click the keyboard again and choose Uninstall device.
- Restart the PC so Windows installs the driver again.
Scan for damaged system files
If nothing so far helped, the System File Checker can find and repair damaged Windows files that may be interfering with the key.
- Type Command Prompt in the search box.
- Right-click it and choose Run as administrator.
- Type sfc /scannow and press Enter.
- Wait until the scan reaches 100 percent without closing the window. This can take a while.
- Restart the PC if it repaired anything, then test the key.
Take screenshots another way while you sort it out
Win + Shift + S works without the Print Screen key, so it is the best stand-in while you sort this out. The other two shortcuts below still use the key, so they help only if the key is registering.
- Win + Shift + S opens the snipping bar, where you pick a rectangle, freeform shape, window or full screen.
- Win + PrtScn captures the full screen and saves it as a file in Pictures, then Screenshots. The screen dims for a moment to show it worked.
- Alt + PrtScn copies only the window you are using to the clipboard.