Using the Snipping Tool for Screenshots in Extremes:
The Snipping Tool will take a picture of any part of the screen and save it as a .jpg without the need for any other program. The Tool is part of Vista, Win7, and Win8. To find it, click the Start button, type snipping into the search box above the Start button, and press Enter. The tool will open and the screen behind it will be “bleachedâ€, ready for selecting a rectangular area.
Click Cancel to restore the background.
Click the Minimize button to send it to the taskbar.
Right-click the icon on the taskbar and select Pin this program to the taskbar. Now it will always be available.
The down-arrow to the right of the New button lists the types of snips: Rectangular is the default, but you can also grab the entire screen, or the current window. For rectangular snip it works like the crop tool in Paint; drag the cursor from the top left to the bottom right of the area. The snip happens when you release the mouse button.
To save the snip, either click the diskette icon, or select Save as… from the File menu. The default type is JPEG, but you can select PNG, GIF, or HTML.
I find this to be the easiest way to make screenshots.