Windows 10

shift+print screen works for me

I've grown to hate 10. A lot of useful things that used to work under 7 have been taken away; e.g. on the favourites list, a quick way of going to something was to simply type in the first letter, like U for UPS. Microsoft in its infinite wisdom because they think they know better have taken that out, so now I have to scroll down several screens to get there. It also keeps wanting to update and reboot my PC. I'm forever getting pop-ups to that effect which are a darned nuisance. The other day without warning it closed me down in the middle of doing something important and a box popped up telling me it was updating and rebooting! It's a ruddy nuisance because every time it updates with the supposedly improved software they introduce a whole load more bugs and problems. Let's face it, if Microsoft wrote their software properly to begin with (something they've been incapable of since day one) they wouldn't need to constantly update. Ever time it reboots it's lost all my settings for logging in to sites, so I have to put them all back manually. I finally found a way to stop it doing updates and reboots, last week, and it hasn't bothered me since. Fingers crossed!

Thank you Helen, the FN plus PRT SCRN worked for me.

As I understand it the PrtSc key is also usually the SysRq key, (your keyboard spelling may vary) so if you press it alone, you do a SysRq, which for Windows is normally ignored. You thus have to use another key, shift, Ctrl, Fn, Alt or the windows key to get PrtSc. Of course the key is also mis-named, it usually copies the screen image to the clipboard rather than print it. Now had anyone found a use for the other mystery key, Pause Break?

What, Microsoft not doing what it says on the tin? No, I cannot believe that. You're right about the Pause/Break key. It's been there since the year dot, and I have never used it. It does absolutely nothing (apart from the keyboard recognises it has been pressed then sends the appropraite key code to the PC which completely ignores it!). I guess it's a legacy, maybe from before-PC times, when some programs, if tracing or listing, say, had a means of being stopped before resuming. A program running could still easily use that key, but this day and age it's usually accomplished by clicking the mouse somewhere. Edited by member, 23rd Aug 2018 10:52 am

Happy to help Heathite and in return I've discovered that this laptop doesn't need fn or ctrl. Perhaps the break key was meant to be the magic button I've always dreamed of? I want one that says to the computer - "stop whatever it is that you're doing, which is using up all my resources AND DO AS YOU'RE BL**DY TOLD!!!!" The number of updates due to Intel, MS, software, anti virus, etc, etc are getting mad. MS are trying to force people to buy new versions of its software. I've got two copies of Office and I still prefer the 2000 version for certain things. People discovered that the new versions weren't substantially better than the old but the menues and feaures they liked changed for the worse, so stopped updating. If I have to get new software, my next one will be an open source version. The freebies are almost as good as the pay stuff. Better, as they're not driven to change stuff for the sake of it. Edited by member, 23rd Aug 2018 12:19 pm

Having read all this, I'm glad I'm still on Windows 7! I had to Google "fn" as I didn't recognise it - no wonder, I don't have one on my keyboard!

Hi All Be careful with hanging on to Windows 7 - Which? advises that security updates for it will stop in 2020