Printscreen keystroke script . ^{PRTSC} not doing anything

Question

I am trying to create a batch script which puts a screenshot on the clipboard for me to save in another application.

I am using the "^{PRTSC}" and have copied code from another posting here (I would ask/comment there but the listing is closed and I do not have enough points to post there.)

When I run the following line line I get no errors:

powershell -c "$wshell = New-Object -ComObject wscript.shell; $wshell.SendKeys("%{PRTSC}")

But when I create a new document in Photoshop and select Paste ctrl+v, nothing is pasted from the clipboard.

Clearly the code is not putting a screenshot in the clipboard.

( I do not want to use Navcmd )

Answer 1

Here is an old batch script that use a module in VB.net and save a screenshot as jpeg image with system date:

---

/*
@echo off & cls & color FC
Mode 30,3
::Autor Delmar Grande
::http://bbat.forumeiro.com/t248-bat-exe-printscreen-usando-vb-net
::Data  Qui 11 Jul 2013
:: Modified by Hackoo on 09/09/2016 to save image with system date
Title PrintScreen by Delmar Grande and modified by Hackoo
Rem Just adding a little timeout to organise our screenshot
Timeout /T 4 /Nobreak>nul
findstr "'%skip%VB" "%~f0">"%tmp%\%~n0.vb"
for /F %%i in ('dir /B /S ^"%WinDir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\vbc.exe^"') do set "vbc=%%i"
if /i "%vbc%"=="" cls & color 1c & echo This script needs the framework & pause & Exit
cls
%vbc% /nologo /out:"%tmp%\%~n0.exe" "%tmp%\%~n0.vb"
"%tmp%\%~n0.exe"
del "%tmp%\%~n0.vb" >NUL 2>&1
del "%tmp%\%~n0.exe" >NUL 2>&1
exit
*/
Imports System.Windows.Forms 'VB
Module ModulePrintscreen 'VB
  Sub Main() 'VB
  Dim MaDate As String 'VB
  SendKeys.SendWait("{%}({PRTSC})") 'VB
  If My.Computer.Clipboard.ContainsImage() Then 'VB
  MaDate = Format(Now,"dd-MM-yyyy_hh-mm-ss") 'VB
  My.Computer.Clipboard.GetImage.Save(MaDate & ".jpg", System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg) 'VB
  End If 'VB
  End Sub 'VB
End Module 'VB

Answer 2

As far as I know, windows keyboard supports two shortcuts to capture the screen:

• PrtScn Captures the entire desktop
• Alt+PrtScn Captures the active window.

Per the title and your description, ^{PRTSC} should act as if it's pressing Ctrl+PrtScn, which will perform the same action as PrtScn.

Assuming you just want to capture the active window, running the following command from a batch file will work:

powershell -c "Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms; [System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait('%%{PRTSC}')"

There are a few differences:

• Using the SendWait implementation from .NET. The COM SendKeys implementation has some issues, notably around how it reacts to console windows and special keys.
• I'm using single quotes to quote the string inside the command, otherwise the double quote will end the quoted string being sent to PowerShell.
• Using % to simulate the Alt key, and more, since it's in a batch file, escaping the % with %%.