I was recently
asked how to capture windows screens for making tutorials. There
are inexpensive screen capture tools available.
If you just want a screen shot to put in a Word or Excel document
then pressing < alt + ptrnsc > and then opening windows paint
and selecting edit and then paste from the menu will do the
job.
Just as inexpensive, and it allows you to capture a video is
Windows Media Encoder. This is a free download from Microsoft
if you have not already got it.You can get the latest
version for Xp at:
https://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/11/default.aspx
You can
get the latest version for Vista at:
https://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/mediaplayer/default.mspx
Guidelines on
getting the best results are at:
https://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/ScreenCodec.aspx
and a getting
started guide is it:
https://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/screencap.aspx
If you find the
Microsoft way to do this a little complex, how about having a look
at the following free application:
The Jing Project
Also, if you
would like a more feature rich tool,TechSmith
who developed The Jing Project also have a commercial
offering calledCamtasia, it looks pretty good.