[philistine]

Is there any way, on a Windows machine (Vista, to be specific), to make it so that whenever I hit the print screen key, that instead of it going to the clipboard, it simply manifests itself as an image file, say, in My Pictures (the destination isn't important)?

Such is the way it works in a lot of on-line games; you take a screenshot, and the file will be conveniently deposited in the game folder.

Can such a thing be done?

Will rep for responses.

[JayEm]

http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/

[Fallen]

Not without an additional application. There are plenty of them out there.

ScreenShot2File is one example of such an application*. If you already have a piece of screen-capture software on your computer (to capture video), it may also have a utility to do this.

*I provide no guarantee that it works as i describe, that it doesn't corrupt your data, that it doesn't damage or destroy your computer, your home, or your dog.

[Chrosson]

http://lightscreen.sourceforge.net/ is an excellent program. It's also available as a portable version from portableapps.com

It allows you to assign hotkeys and default behaviour for whole screen screenshots, window screenshots and screenshots where you select the area with your mouse.