DELL INSPIRON 15 5559 Alt+PrtScr Not Working

I'd suggest you press PrtScr key + windows logo key to capture the entire screen. I also suggest using the Snipping tool on the system as well. Please type Snipping Tool onto the [Cortana] search box, you'll see the tool.

How to take a screenshot in Windows 10 (Print Screen ...

Thank you for your suggestions, but that is not the problem.  I am familiar with how to take a print screen and I also know how to use the snipping too.  What I want to do is capture only the active window. This works using alt+PrtScr on all other computers I have both at home and work.  I don't understand why this does not work on my new Dell.  Has Dell disabled it or is it somehow a failure with my specific laptop.

This is not a solution on my system.

First I do not need to press Fn + PrtScr to capture the entire screen. (this turns all wireless communication off including my bluetooth mouse :( )

Just pressing PrtScr captures the entire screen to my clipboard where I can past it into wordpad or paint etc.

Pressing Fn+PrtScr does not take a print screen - it turns airplane mode on/off

Pressing Fn+Alt+PrtScr does nothing (the previous item in the clipboard is still there) (I tried both left and right Alt keys)

I am able to use the snipping tool to capture a window, BUT this extra step, that I do not need to do on any other windows system, is annoying.

Hi,

Please create a new user account on the system to check if the Alt + PrtScr option works.

Also, please check if the option works once you uninstall Dell Quickset application.

The flowchart should be -this- and only -this-:

1. Support rep reads user question.
2. Support rep finds same model/bios/OS unit in engineering section.
3. Support rep tries to replicate error (actually reading the details the OP provided)
4. Support rep discovers OP is correct.  Dell has broken the standard.
5. Support rep sees if there is existing stupid special-keystroke workaround.
   
   1. If yes, Support rep shares this solution with OP.
   2. Support rep searches to see if that information is reasonably available to all end users and if not, submits an internal ticket to both correct that, but even if it already is, submits an internal ticket to communicate that users are not finding that dang-fool workaround and littering the web with support questions
   3. Support rep also submits internal ticket to the effect, Um.. Guys.  There is absolutely no conceivable reason we had  a) not do this or b) create some dang-fool alternative method with the intention of saying, "Fix this mistake and push the patch immediately via update.
6. Support rep apologizes for Dell's failure to OP an provides assurances that the problem will be remedied as best as Dell is able A.S.A.P.

Ravi, please consider four things.  

1) the OP has provided plenty of evidence that he is a knowledgeable user who knows what he's talking about and should not be asked to go down your support flow-chart to perform useless tasks that will eventually lead to proof of what we already know.   Dell has screwed up a -basic- required Win95se -> current version windows functionality of using alt-prtScr to copy only the contents of the Active Window to the system clipboard.

2) The OP knows more about his machine than you do, else you'd not be giving him outdated advice related to former dell laptops and their strategies to compress functionality and features into a standard keyboard keyset by adding color coded macro keys and a bios setting to allow the end user to select between those keys being by default 'Function Keys' with special keys accessed using the Fn macro, or having those keys being by default the 'special keys' with the Function keys accessed using the Fn.....  He knows that in this present iteration of the dell Inspiron, with the 'special keys' set as default, that only the PrtScr key is necessary to copy the entire screen image to the clipboard.  There is no need to use any other special key as a macro... not Ctrl, not Win, not Fn, not Alt.   He is completely correct in this, or in his assertion that the standard universal alt+prtScn does not work as expected and there seems no way to restore this functionality that should never have been lost.

3) The interwebs is packed with similar support threads both on and off of Dell sites for this issue.... both on older dells (where non-standard macro keystrokes were required), and more recently on the current Latitude 15s and 2-in-1s.  He is not the only person to seek a solution to Dell's mistake.

4) I too have this problem. It's beyond annoying and dropping a full-screen shot into Photoshop or any other raster-image editor is NOT sufficient because transparency of effects is not preserved.

The OP has identified a BUG.  A Mistake. Made by Dell.  Please stop running him through the gamut of 1) wrong advice, 2) flowchart procedures that assume user error and not software/bios error, and 3) Start A Blessed Ticket with your development team and serve your customers by correcting this error, and 4) Stop wasting more of the time that has already been wasted by an end-user having to find a way to alert Dell to it's mistake.

If such a work-around exists I would expect to find it in the docs, manual, Service App, and EASILY on websites using standard search utilities and obvious keywords.

Much obliged.

Hi,

I have the same problem with window 10 and follow instruction as link below at step 3 instead of turn it of so you click turn it on and it work for my computer now.

https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-disable-the-print-screen-key-in-windows

#DisablethePrintScreenKeyinWindows10
#DellPrintScreenKeynotWork