How to screenshot on a Surface Pro or Surface Laptop
On any Surface, press Windows + Shift + S to snip part of the screen. With the keyboard detached, press Power and Volume Up together to save the full screen. Type Covers without a PrtScn key, such as the one on a Surface Pro 7, use Fn + Space as Print Screen.
4 September 2026
Surface screenshot methods
Surface devices run Windows, so the usual Windows shortcuts work. What is different is the keyboard (often a detachable Type Cover), the hardware buttons and the pen. Pick whichever suits how you are holding it.
- Windows + Shift + S: snip an area, a window or the full screen. It goes to the clipboard and, on Windows 11, is saved to Pictures\Screenshots by default.
- PrtScn or Fn + Space: Print Screen. On current Windows 11 builds it opens the snipping bar; on Windows 10 it copies the full screen to the clipboard.
- Windows + PrtScn or Windows + Fn + Space: saves the full screen straight to Pictures\Screenshots.
- Power + Volume Up: full-screen screenshot in tablet mode, saved to Pictures\Screenshots.
- Surface Pen top button: can be set to open screen snipping.
Surface keyboards: PrtScn or Fn + Space
Many Surface Type Covers, including the covers for the Surface Pro 7 and earlier models, have no Print Screen key. On those, Fn + Space acts as PrtScn, and Fn + Alt + Space captures just the active window to the clipboard.
Newer Surface keyboards and the Surface Laptop keyboard vary by generation, and some do have a PrtScn legend. Check your top row. If you are not sure, Windows + Shift + S works on every Surface keyboard.
How to screenshot on a Surface Pro 7
- With the Type Cover attached, press Windows + Shift + S, pick Rectangle, Window, Full screen or Freeform, and drag or click.
- To save the full screen as a file instead, press Windows + Fn + Space.
- Without the keyboard, press and hold Power, then press Volume Up, and release both. The screen flashes.
- Click the notification to crop or mark up the snip in the Snipping Tool, or paste it with Ctrl + V.
- Open File Explorer, then Pictures, then Screenshots, to find saved files.
Using the Surface Pen
Pens with a top button, such as the Surface Pen and Slim Pen, can open screen snipping from the button, so you can draw a box around what you want without touching a keyboard. Which press does what (single click, double click or press and hold) is set in Windows under Settings, Bluetooth and devices, Pen and Windows Ink, Pen shortcuts. The pen needs to be paired over Bluetooth for the button to work.
Surface Go, Laptop and Studio
Surface Go uses a Type Cover and the same Fn + Space and Power + Volume Up methods as the Surface Pro. Surface Laptop has a fixed keyboard, so the standard shortcuts apply. Surface Laptop Studio in stage or studio mode can use the pen or the snipping bar.
Capture a whole web page on a Surface
Every method above captures the screen only. To save an entire scrolling web page, use NeoReader Full Page Screenshot, a free extension for Edge, Chrome and Firefox. It stitches the whole page and lets you crop, annotate and blur private details before saving PNG, JPG or PDF. Our free Screenshot to Text tool pulls the words out of a screenshot in your browser, and the image stays on your device.
