Periodically there will be times you’ll want to capture a screenshot of something on your computer screen. Your options of doing this the Windows way is a bit limited.

The Windows way is by using ALT+PrintScreen (capture focused window) or CTRL+PrintScreen (capture entire screen including taskbar). Both are inadequate because you can’t be specific with regions and both only save to the clipboard (it’s required to paste into an image or document editor of some kind afterwards).

The better way is to use screenshot utilities that save direct-to-file as a JPEG. It’s faster, easier and can be posted to places like ImageShack or TinyPic for easy sharing if need be with no registration required.

Greenshot (get it here)

Greenshot is beta but very tiny, very fast and very easy to use. It will save direct-to-file (see “Preferences” as shown above), capture regions and give you the power you need to take quick’n'dirty screenshots with zero hassle.

In addition – GreenShot is small enough to run independently on a USB stick. So if you have an “emergency” stick, having this app on there is definitely a plus.

Screengrab (get it here)

Screengrab is a Mozilla Firefox plugin that allows you to capture an entire web page, covering the full length (i.e. the stuff you have to scroll down to see).

When installed, right-click anywhere on a web page, select ScreenGrab!, then Save, then Complete Page/Frame and it will save a PNG. If the PNG is too large for you, you can configure it to save a JPEG file instead.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used this plugin. It’s very handy when you want to capture the full length of a web page in just a few clicks as a single file instead of “stitching” together multiple ALT-PrintScreen screenshots.

Both utilities are free

Go get ‘em, start capturing and have fun because they both work great.