Getting Help - Making a Screen Shot of Error Messages

This site is devoted to Windows based PCs, specifically Windows XP computers. Visit a MAC site or a Linux site for other assistance.

It can be hard to remember an exact error message, and you are often not able to copy the text to try to paste it into a document or form. When you can’t copy and paste the text from an error message, you can print a screen shot of the error message. You need to do this when the error message is showing on your screen. If you click closed the window with the error message, you’ll need to repeat the steps you took that generated the error message to make a screen shot of it.

First, find the Print Screen and the Alt buttons on your computer keyboard. You will need to hold down each of these keys at the same time to make a copy of the screen on your computer. That copy is placed on your clipboard. You can’t see it, but it’s the place that your computer puts everything you copy. Once you’ve done so, you need to open a word processor such as Microsoft Word or even Word Pad, the handy text editor that comes on every Microsoft Windows computer. Word Pad can be found by selecting the Start button in the bottom left corner of your computer screen, and then selecting in order All Programs, Accessories, Word Pad.

Once you’ve opened Word Pad or another word processor, you need to paste the screen shot that you put on your clipboard into a document. Open a new document if needed, and then hold the Ctrl button on your keyboard down while at the same time pressing the letter key V. Ctrl V is the shortcut for paste. (Ctrl C is copy, and Ctrl X is delete.) The screen shot should be pasted into your document. You can then print this document as a ready reference for searching the Microsoft Knowledge Base or talking with a service representative for your computer manufacturer.