Freeware Screenshot program for Win7-64

[Ian Warren]

Hi you guys, Old days on WindowXP simply required the 'Print Screen Key' to grab a screenshot in FS9 and the screens were perfect, my FS-PC was upgraded years ago and use the Win7-64bit OS and required to use the Snipping Tool to grab a FS9 screen, FSX is simply press the 'V' key and every screen is produced perfectly but in FS9 using the Snipping Tool in FS9 the final screen is jaggy and horrid.... Is there a freeware tool that will grab a screen by the press of a button using the Win7-64bit OS in full screen?

[lemonadedrinker]

Hi,
I use FSScreen from Mathias Holzer which seems pretty good! The main thing for me is that it's very simple to use :dizzy:.

If there is a 'problem' with it, it is that it appears to only save images as bmps, so they have to be resized and converted to jpegs before posting.

Andy.

[Ian Warren]

Thanks Andy, editing screens to Jpeg is not a problem - very much all save in the bitmap format, I'll do a search, dig the program up and see if I get the required results, Cheers Matey :encouragement:

[DarrenL]

FRAPS - http://www.fraps.com/

as freeware you get accurate fps displayed, screenshot capture (saved as bmp, jpg, or png your choice), fully customised key choices so as to not interfere with FS keys and in freeware a 30s video capture. If you buy it you get full no limits video capture.

[Ian Warren]

Thanks Darren, I have not tried Andy's idea yet, I have FS9 and FSX are on independent HD's - i was thinking of the possible conflict , reading the spec's of FSScreen I wondered if it would work on a Win7-64, you now give me a choice, I heard of Frap's but did not know it come with a free option ... movie making tho .. some of the quality stuff I have seen produced across this SOH forum it may be worth looking at later on ... I can see it now "Ian Spellingburg Warren" :adoration:

[lemonadedrinker]

Hi,

This computer is W8 64 bits, but I'm going to try that FRAPS as well if they can be saved as jpegs. Good clues !

Andy.

[dhazelgrove]

Fraps is the way to go.

I'm running it under Win8.1 64-bit, without issues.

Dave

[lemonadedrinker]

Hi,

Another program I use is FSRecorder which makes a far better video than the FS9 standard jerky ole thing...and it'll give screenshots as well.

And Thanks to you Dave for saying 8.1 works OK, Ms keep reminding me and I chicken out of loading it up. but I'll give it a go now!

Andy.

[Desert Rat]

Martin Wright's MultiGrab,does exactly what it says on the tin, no nonsense utility and been using it forever it seems, never needed anything else.

http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/ (click on Multigrab icon bottom-centre, your also need the dll's listed on the page)

It also works in any program/game/app/windows/etc.

[ThinkingManNeil]

I run Win 7-64 on my machine and have used FSScreen for several years on both this and my former Win XP PC and it worked very nicely. I also run the Comodo Firewall package, which, after a recent update, suddenly decided it didn't like FSScreen, said " 'ere! We'll have none of that!" and promptly banished it from my system. Next it'll be telling me what coffee to drink and that I should get out and exercise more often...

N.

[Ian Warren]

Thanks for the help chaps and for the information , Neil you should drink your fave Coffee and heard with a good dash of Whiskey :biggrin-new:

[Ian Warren]

Again thanks for the tips FRAPS it is for FS9/2004 screens , Cheers:encouragement:
http://www.fsfiles.org/flightsimshotsv2/images/2014/05/21/CSus.jpg

[Dangerousdave26]

I have had the registered version of Fraps for years. Its a great program.

I thought the free version of fraps only allowed screen shots in .bmp format but its been years since I had that version.

[Tom Clayton]

I'm in a little late in the day on this, but I'll pitch in a little tech info. I know from first hand experience that the PrtScn button had worked the same in every Microsoft OS from 2000 Pro through 7. With the possible exception of ME, I have used that feature throughout the years. The function is simple. Hit the button, and an image of whatever is on the screen goes into the system clipboard. If you use the combination Alt+PrtScn, you only get the active window. In order to save that, you have to pause the flight and paste it into your favorite image editor and save the file.

That's where FSScreen comes in. When that's running, any image that gets copied to the system clipboard gets pulled right back out and turned into a 24-bit bmp file located in the same folder as the program itself. So be careful not to hold down the button, because you'll have a few hundred megabytes in short order. Oh, and it plays hell with your mind when you're trying to copy/paste in your graphics app if you forget FSScreen is running.

While FSScreen does what it does extremely well, that's exactly all it does. That's where YAFSScreen (http://www.marian-aldenhoevel.de/YAFSScreen/) comes in. It's basically FSScreen with more options, such as output format and output location.

The rest of the screen grab apps do their own thing as far as options, trigger key, and other bells and whistles. So the bottom line is this: Use what works best for you. Just remember that a heavy system footprint will pull down your frames. Personally, I prefer the KISS principle, so I still with the simplest one - FSScreen. It's a simple stand-alone executable with almost no system footprint, and I prefer to do my own format conversion after editing the source bitmap.

So... How's that for muddying things up?

[Ian Warren]

I have had the registered version of Fraps for years. Its a great program.

I thought the free version of fraps only allowed screen shots in .bmp format but its been years since I had that version.
Yes indeed, only .bmp format .. I only needed a program to capture screens in FS9 rather using the Snippet tool
I do screens every now and again but use my whooping costly CS5.5 to edit most screens so .BMPs are no problem .. older XP was simple press the screen print, can't do that in Win7-64 without the jiggy jaggys .. I thought the program was payware for that simple task hence I never looked into it so pleased to find you screen and edit in my own way, other advanced options require the paying approx $38US .

Only needed this to help another NZFFer with his runway sinking problem in FS2004, course I posted a screen and it looked horrible, hence the posting and pleased I did, I did not spend that much time reproducing screens for FS9 since FSX and pre Win 7 .