Q240653: HOWTO: Copy the Screen or Active Window to the Clipboard from VB

Article: Q240653
Product(s): Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows
Version(s): 5.0,6.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbprint kbAPI kbClipboard kbPrinting kbSDKWin32 kbVBp kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbOSWin95 kbOSW
Last Modified: 11-SEP-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Visual Basic Learning Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

This article demonstrates how to programmatically copy the active window or the
whole screen to the clipboard and print the image.

MORE INFORMATION
================

The code included in Knowledge Base article:

  Q161299 HOWTO: Capture and Print the Screen, a Form, or any Window

shows how to capture any form or window, including the screen, and place it in a
Visual Basic Picture object. If the only requirement is to copy the active
window or screen to the clipboard, the keybd_event API is a much easier and
lower overhead approach. Calling the keybd_event API achieves the same
functionality as entering the key combinations PRINTSCRN (copy the screen to the
clipboard) or ALT+PRINTSCRN (copy the active window to the clipboard). If you
also need to print the image, a hidden PictureBox can provide this
functionality.

Step-by-step Example
--------------------

1. Start a new Visual Basic Standard EXE project. Form1 is created by default.

2. Add three CommandButtons and a PictureBox to Form1.

3. Add the following code into the General Declarations section of Form1:

  Option Explicit

  Private Declare Sub keybd_event Lib "user32" (ByVal bVk As Byte, ByVal _
     bScan As Byte, ByVal dwFlags As Long, ByVal dwExtraInfo As Long)

  Private Declare Function GetVersionExA Lib "kernel32" _
        (lpVersionInformation As OSVERSIONINFO) As Integer

  Private Type OSVERSIONINFO
      dwOSVersionInfoSize As Long
      dwMajorVersion As Long
      dwMinorVersion As Long
      dwBuildNumber As Long
      dwPlatformId As Long
      szCSDVersion As String * 128
  End Type

  Private Const KEYEVENTF_KEYUP = &H2
  Private Const VK_SNAPSHOT = &H2C
  Private Const VK_MENU = &H12

  Dim blnAboveVer4 As Boolean

  Private Sub Command1_Click()
      If blnAboveVer4 Then
          keybd_event VK_SNAPSHOT, 0, 0, 0
      Else
          keybd_event VK_SNAPSHOT, 1, 0, 0
      End If
  End Sub

  Private Sub Command2_Click()
      If blnAboveVer4 Then
          keybd_event VK_SNAPSHOT, 1, 0, 0
      Else
          keybd_event VK_MENU, 0, 0, 0
          keybd_event VK_SNAPSHOT, 0, 0, 0
          keybd_event VK_SNAPSHOT, 0, KEYEVENTF_KEYUP, 0
          keybd_event VK_MENU, 0, KEYEVENTF_KEYUP, 0
      End If
  End Sub

  Private Sub Command3_Click()
      ' Load the captured image into a PictureBox and print it
      Picture1.Picture = Clipboard.GetData()
      Printer.PaintPicture Picture1.Picture, 0, 0
      Printer.EndDoc
  End Sub

  Private Sub Form_Load()
      Dim osinfo As OSVERSIONINFO
      Dim retvalue As Integer
     
      osinfo.dwOSVersionInfoSize = 148
      osinfo.szCSDVersion = Space$(128)
      retvalue = GetVersionExA(osinfo)
      If osinfo.dwMajorVersion > 4 Then blnAboveVer4 = True

      Picture1.Visible = False
      Command1.Caption = "Print Screen"
      Command2.Caption = "Alt+Print Screen"
      Command3.Caption = "Print Image"
  End Sub

4. Open Microsoft Paint, and then run the project.

5. Click the Print Screen button, switch to Paint, and press CTRL+V to paste the
  contents of the clipboard into Paint. The entire screen is pasted.

6. Click the Alt+Print Screen button, switch to Paint as before, and press
  CTRL+V again. Only the active window is pasted.

7. Click the Print Image button and the captured image will print (using a
  hidden PictureBox).

REFERENCES
==========

For additional information, please click the article numbers below to view them
in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q161299 HOWTO: Capture and Print the Screen, a Form, or any Window

  Q189249 HOWTO: Determine Which 32-Bit Windows Version Is Being Used

Additional query words: PRINTSCREEN ALTPRINTSCREEN ALT+PRINTSCREEN

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Keywords          : kbprint kbAPI kbClipboard kbPrinting kbSDKWin32 kbVBp kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbOSWin95 kbOSWin98 kbGrpDSVB kbDSupport kbOSWinME 
Technology        : kbVBSearch kbAudDeveloper kbZNotKeyword6 kbZNotKeyword2 kbVB500Search kbVB600Search kbVBA500 kbVBA600 kbVB500 kbVB600
Version           : :5.0,6.0
Issue type        : kbhowto

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