How to Capture Screenshot on Window Vista?

As many Windows Vista users found, when you capture a screenshot on Vista, the icon will appear more attractive with the surrounding drop shadows. Well, this article shows you how to capture screenshot on Windows Vista. None of the free screen capture programs can capture drop shadows in Vista - not even the Snipping Tool that ships with some editions of Windows Vista. So here¡¯s a very simple workaround:

Step1: Create White Background.

Minimize the desktop (Win + M), start Notepad and maximize the window. You can do this with running notepad if if your desktop background color is set to solid white and there are no icons on the desktop.

Step2: Prepare for Screen Capture.

Put Notepad in the background such that it covers the desktop. Now bring other application(s) to the foreground that you want to screen capture. (see example here)

Step3: Capture a Screenshot.

Press the Print Screen Key or invoke any of your favorite screen capture program (like SnagIt) to take a snapshot of the full desktop screen. Save that as an image to the desktop.

Step4: Edit the picture.

Open this screenshot image in any editor (Photoshop Express, Picnik, Fireworks, etc) - carefully draw a marquee selection around the drop shadows (no black are should selected) and finally crop. Save the cropped image and you¡¯ll be pretty happy to see the result.