Why can't I ';print-screen'; an image from a video in Windows Paint?

When I'm playing a video clip in a video player, I can ';print-screen'; and paste into Windows Paint. Then I edit out what I don't want and save the image as a jpeg file. Yet when I go to view it, I only get a black screen image - as if it never captured it.





What am I doing wrong?Why can't I ';print-screen'; an image from a video in Windows Paint?
This is because you are using hardware acceleration when viewing the video (which is normal). It's a bit complex to explain but with hardware acceleration the video is overlayed on the screen. This gives the best performance, without it video playback can be choppy and unwatchable, trouble is it means you can't screen grab using print-screen. Luckily you can easily turn off hardware accelration to get your screen grab.





Open Control panel


Click on Display


Click the Settings Tab


Click the Advanced Button


Click the Troubleshoot tab


Drag the Hardware Acceleration slider down to None





Now play the video and take the print-screen and it will capture the image properly. As said, the video playback may be poor without hardware acceleration, so once you are finished, repeat the steps and drag the Hardware Acceleration slide back to Full.