How do I use Alt+PrintScreen to capture an active window within VMWare?

[forest]

Writing documentation I frequently use Alt+PrintScreen to capture the actual (focused/selected) window on the screen to the clipboard. Then I just use paste in e.g. OpenOfiice. Nice, easy, quick way to use for documentation.

I also use VMWare frequently to test installations. My problem is that I can't use the normal Alt+PrintScreen when I have selected a window within a VMWare session (I use VMWare Workstation, 6.03 build 80004).

Anyone who knows the "magic" key combination?

/Anders

[Beerdy]

You may find this of interest:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/80883

[forest]

Tks, got a few tips there, but I am not 100% satisfied. I tried the suggested application, Gadwin PrintScreen 4.3 freeware, and found that it does its job. However, so does the original AltPrintScreen while I am still within my VMWare session. Doing either AltPrintScreen or PrintScreen to Gadwin puts the client window (my entered opton in Gadwin) into the clipboard. I can e.g. start wordpad on the VMWare computer and paste it there. But why can I not transfer the contents of the clipboard to my host computer? I can do that with text, but obviously not with images (in my case I set Gadwin to produce a png file in the clipboard).

In VMWare I have checked the option VMWare Machine Settings, Guest Isolation, Enable copy and paste to and from the virtual machine. So, copying text to my host is no problem, however images are. Bug? Feature?

/Anders

[Peter_vm]

That might depend on your guest/host OS combination and VMware Tools status.

[asatoran]

"Feature." I believe the copy between host/guest was always text only. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

My workaround is print screen on host and paste in to Paint. Then crop out what I don't need. This assumes you're not in full screen. Just select the window you wanted to alt-printscreen, ctrl-c (copy), ctrl-n (new paint document), n (no don't save), ctrl-v (paste). Yes, its not 100% satisfactory, but it's built in to all versions of Windows and doesn't cost anything more than a minute or so.

[Peter_vm]

Clipboard can transfer bitmap info too... sometimes.

[admin]

In Workstation 6.5, you can save the whole screen by pressing CtrlAltPrintScreen (where Ctrl+Alt is your ungrab combination) or by choosing VM > Capture Screen.

In Edit > Preferences, you can set if you want the screenshot saved to the clipboard and/or to a file.

[ltoscano]

Simply run the VM in "full-screen" mode and then try Alt-PrintScreen. It should capture just the window you have in focus. In VMware "window" mode Ctrl-Alt-PrintScreen is your only choice and it will print the entire desktop to the host location specified in Edit->Preferences->Workspace.