How to take a screen shot and save it to a custom folder with a single PrtSc keypress?

Is there a way to take a screenshot, that satisfy following requirements:

  • Full screen screenshot is taken when pressing PrtSc button
  • Screenshot is taken immediately, there is no further configuration / selection to do after pressing the button
  • It is automatically saved to a preconfigured folder I can change
  • It does not change focus - that is it does not pop up the folder (or anything else) after screenshot is taken
  • If a third party program is used, it should be free

I know that ⊞ Win+PrtSc does that, but I need to be able to do it with a single PrtSc press, not with the combo.

Is this possible? How?

I'm asking for a friend, who used to take screenshots this way on his old computer, that was set up this way by an unknown person. On his new computer it's no longer working because it was not set up this way. It's difficult for him to change his habits, he already tried and reported that it is not working to his satisfaction. How can I help him?

Edit: not a dupe!

This question is different to the one proposed in the close vote because, the linked question has criteria different to the criteria list given here. Basically the only think in common, that it's also about printing screen and nothing else: the linked question asked about regions, this one asks about full screen, the linked question asks for mouse usage, this one asks for keyboard usage. The answer to linked question uses the two-key combo, which is specifically out of scope for this question.


Solution 1:

From within windows itself, no. But with additional (optionally free) software, definitely yes.

I use GreenShot (free) myself for this very reason. If you want paid software, then TechSmith's SnagIt is almost the same software, but paid. Its good though.

You can configure what it does when you press Print Screen, from making a selection first, then copy that automatically, to doing a full screen copy and save that automatically.

You can also let it copy the entire screen to the clipboard instead, or open it in its internal editor so you can do things like blur stuff out before you save it or copy it back into the clipboard.

Also, do note, it never was possible to do this from within windows, so when it was previously setup, additional software was definitely used. Could easily have been GreenShot back then too.