Remember the “Print Screen” key on your full standard keyboard? You know, the key between the F12 and “Scroll Lock” keys? Well, with our new Surface keyboards, and many other modern laptops and ultrabooks, the Print Screen key is gone. What replaces it now is the Screenshot functionality built into Windows 8.
To take a screenshot of the current screen press the Windows Logo button and the Volume Down button on your Surface. The screen would dim slightly for a moment to show that it has captured the screen. This works very well, whether you are working on a Word document or paying a full screen game. This key combination works on many other Windows tablets as well.
(Digression: This is similar on Windows Phone devices, but the key combination is different. It used to be the Power button and Windows home button; however, since Windows Phone 8.1, it is now the Power button and Volume Up button to take screenshots on Windows Phones).
Once the screenshot is taken, Windows automatically saves the png image file to your “This PC > Pictures > Screenshots” folder, or also known as “C:\Users\UserName\Pictures\Screenshots” folder, where UserName is your actual user name in Windows.
This feature also works well if you are running multiple screens. Windows would combine both screens into a single image file. The cool thing is if your screens are side-by-side, then the screenshot images are side-by-side. I have my Surface Pro on my desk in front of me with my monitor above the Surface Pro screen, so my screenshot images are stacked on top of one another.
The screenshots are taken pixel-by-pixel, so if you have two different resolution screens, the two images would be different sizes. Since my monitor and the Surface Pro screens are 1080p, the widths of both images are the same when they are stacked.
Go ahead and try it. May all your screenshots be awesome!