How to Take a Scrolling Screenshot on Windows 11

Most modern web browsers support taking scrolling screenshots. Still, some of them hide that option under cryptic submenus most people would never see.

You’re not restricted to web pages, though. You can also grab scrolling screenshots from any open window/app. Unfortunately, Windows’ native screenshot tools don’t support scrolling screenshots. However, you can still take scrolling screenshots using third-party apps.

So, let’s see how you can grab scrolling screenshots from your browser or other apps.

Take scrolling screenshots in Microsoft Edge

Unlike Internet Explorer, Edge comes with everything you’d expect from a modern browser. That includes the ability to grab scrolling screenshots from any web page. To do that:

1. Visit the web page you want to capture a scrolling screenshot of. We’ll use Wikipedia entries on retro-computers as examples for this article.

   

2. Right-click on an empty part of the page and choose Web capture from the menu. You can also press CTRL + Shift + S.

   

3. Edge will offer two options. With the first, Capture area, pre-selected. Ignore that and click on the second option, Capture full page.

   

4. Edge will show a window overlay with your screenshot over the actual page. Apart from previewing the result, you can also sketch over it. When you’re happy with the result, click on Save on the top right of the overlayed window.

   

5. Edge doesn’t offer a straightforward save option. You can Copy the screenshot to paste it into another app or choose to Share it. If you want to save the file locally, select the Share option.

   

Take scrolling screenshots in Google Chrome

Sometimes Google Chrome tends to complicate things. It can grab scrolling screenshots but has that function buried in the last place you’d expect.

1. The first step is to click on the button with the three vertical dots to access Chrome’s main menu. From there, choose More tools, and then Developer tools. It’s easier if you use the shortcut, though: CTRL + Shift + I.

   

2. Chrome displays its Developer Tools window embedded in the active window by default. This reduces the displayed page’s visible area to only part of the screen.Do you want to take view your whole screen for the screenshot? First, detach Developer Tools to another floating window. Then, click on the button with the three dots in the Developer Tools embedded window. Note that it’s not the same button you clicked before, at the top right of Chrome’s window. Instead, click on the first button next to Dock side. This moves Developer Tools to an independent window.

   

3. With Chrome’s Developer Tools window selected and active, press Ctrl + Shift + P. You’ll see a command prompt pop up. Type “screenshot” to locate Chrome’s screen-grabbing functions. Chrome offers four screenshot modes. Either click or use the arrow keys and Enter and choose Capture full-size screenshot. Chrome will grab the screenshot and ask you where to save it.

   

Take scrolling screenshots in Mozilla Firefox

Firefox offers the best scrolling screenshot functionality out of all modern browsers. Or, at least, the most straightforward and easily accessible one. Visit the site you want to grab a full screenshot for. Then, you can:

1. Right-click on an empty part of the page and select Take Screenshot from the menu.

   

2. Firefox will place an overlay over the page, allowing you to mark the area you want to capture. But that’s not the mode we want. If you look at the top right of the overlay, you’ll see two more capture methods. The first one, Save full page, is the option to take a scrolling screenshot. The second option, Save visible, only stores the visible area of the browser’s window.

   

3. Firefox will show a new overlay over the active page with a preview of your screenshot. Scroll down to check if everything was grabbed as intended. You can then Copy the screenshot to your Clipboard or Download it to a local file. Clicking on the X icon or pressing Escape closes the preview and cancels the screenshot.

   

Take scrolling screenshots in any app using ShareX

If you want to capture another app’s window instead of a web page, you can use a third-party app like ShareX. To grab a full screenshot of the contents of (almost) any scrolling window with ShareX, follow these steps:

1. Download and install ShareX from its official site.

   

2. With the window you want to take a scrolling screenshot of active, run ShareX. Then, choose Capture > Scrolling capture from its main menu.

   

3. ShareX will show some options which you can safely ignore. In most cases, the defaults will work. Next, click on Start scrolling capture at the bottom of the window to begin the capture process.

   

   Note: ShareX might grab only a fraction of the entire screenshot with some apps. If that happens, play with the options in the “Scroll top method before capture” and “Scroll method” dropdown menus.

4. ShareX will present a preview of your screenshot. If you’re happy with the results, click on Upload/save depending on after capture settings to have ShareX upload the file to the web. Unfortunately, there’s no way to skip that part. You can then download the screenshot to a local file.

   

Tl;dr

The typical screenshot only presents horizontally-friendly windows and images. Still, there are cases where you need to grab the full height of a web page. You can do that in three of the most popular browsers and use third-party apps to capture content from any window.