Microsoft You’re determined to modernize Windows, and the first step is to break old habits. The most recent version of its operating system is not only committed to aesthetics in keeping with current times, but also gets rid of classic functions. The most recent change has to do with the Print Screen button in Windows 11, which will say goodbye to the functionality that it has maintained for three decades.
In accordance with windows latestThe key Print Screen will no longer capture what is on the screen to copy to the clipboard. The next update for Windows 11 will replace this action and instead pressing the key the tool will open Cuts. The change can already be seen in version KB5025310, available in the Beta channel for users of the Insider program.
For those old school users, cuts is a modernized version of print screen. Instead of capturing all the space, the tool allows you to select only one section that will be automatically copied to the clipboard. cutswhich is activated with the key combination Win+Shift+Sis similar to Lightshotan app for Windows and Mac that offers the same functionality.
Although the change in Windows 11 will modify the function of the key Print Screen, Not everything is lost. Unlike other controversial tweaks — like the Start menu — Microsoft learned its lesson and will offer a way to reverse it. Users who want to keep a feature that dates back to Windows 95 intact will be able to do so from the keyboard accessibility menu in system settings.
Print Screen, a function older than Windows
The Print Screen function, activated by the Print Screen key, is a relic dating from operating systems with command line interface. In MS-DOS times, the key transferred the screen content to the printer port. This was achieved by extracting it from the memory buffer and dumping it to the LPT port. In the case of commands with extensions greater than one screen, the combination of CTRL + Print Screen solved the problem.
This feature was inherited to Windows versions and remained unchanged until now. The usual procedure to capture screen was: press the Print Screen key, open Paint and paste the image with Ctrl + V. Later we would cut out a section and save the file as a .JPG.
Too many steps it was not practical, so tools like Lightshot became popular by modernizing this feature. Years later, Microsoft would release cutswhich turned out to be quite a useful function to store screenshots. Although the idea was good, the key combination went unnoticed and the only way to encourage people to use it was to break with tradition.
It is possible that the change of Print Screen annoys the most Windows purists. One of the reasons the operating system doesn’t leave behind the Control Panel and other features of two decades ago is that Microsoft doesn’t want to upset its user base. Unlike macOS and other operating systems, Windows users are more resistant to change.
Proof of this is Windows 8 or Windows 11 itself, which fails to gain a considerable market share, despite being offered as a free upgrade for Windows 10 users.