If you are really familiar with computers, I am sure you know about Print Screen. If not, this is a double lesson for you. Using the combo Alt+PrtScn (PrtScn can be located on a standard keyboard above the Insert/Home buttons) you can take a snapshot of the current window of an application, if no windows are open it takes a snapshot of your desktop. From there you are able to Paste it into a image editor such as GIMP or even Paint which comes with Windows. Well this is great for simple little things, but it has some limitations. For example, it only does the current window, sometimes you need the whole screen. Also, it is unable to capture video in Windows Media Player.

A new tool that is built into Windows Vista is called Snipping Tool. It can be found in Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories or alternatively Start > Run and type in snipping tool. The Snipping Tool has four ways that you can snip: Free-form, Rectangle, Window, and Full Screen.

As you can tell from the screens I captured, you are able to capture videos as well, basically everything you see is what you get when you use the Snipping Tool. One tip of advise is go into the Options and uncheck the box at the bottom "Show selection ink after snips are captured." Otherwise you will get a line that goes all the way around your image. Once you have selected the area you want to "snip," it will then bring up a basic image editor where you can draw on your image or save it so you can open it with something like GIMP and do more editing.