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Capture screen shots from Windows media player

If you try to capture a screen shot while using Windows media player using the conventional 'Print Scr' button approach, you'll find that it doesn't work. Instead of an image of what is shown in the media player, you'll get blankness. If you want to be able to capture images from the media players, here's a hack to do it, it works in Windows media player version 10 but I'm not sure about other versions.

In the media player select Tools from the menu bar, then select Options and select the Performance tab. On this tab, select the Advanced button. On the following page, uncheck the 'Use Overlays' option and then click OK.

Once you make this change, the 'Print Scr' button will now capture screen shots that include the image shown in the Windows media player.
Rating: 57% positive, 7 total Votes
Categories: windows media player video screenshots
Added: on Jul 31, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Added By: an anonymous user
Searches: media player window capture shot

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This doesnt work. Every site I've gone on says this same old bullshit and it never works. Looks like someone just copied and pasted from another website and never checked to see if it works.
– Added by an anonymous user on Aug 31, 2008 at 6:50 pm
i used to just right click on the screen while i was watching a dvd go to dvd features and could just click on capture image. the still would be sent to my photos and i could print it on my printer. now the capture image doesn't appear from dvd features. don't know why.
– Added by an anonymous user on Sep 25, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Ignoring the first comment, I tried this method as there wasn't anything you could lose from it. Despite other comments, this does work. For Later versions of Windows media player, or people using a skin, you will need to right-click the windows media player icon (top right of the players window, may vary with skins) and select tools -> Options from there. Following through the rest of the steps provided enables you to take a screenshot of whatever. Although, not knowing the full effects of the option, I would suggest that you turn it back on after you've finished the screenshots.

I hope this has helped people ^.^
– Added by an anonymous user on Sep 28, 2008 at 7:59 am
I agree with the first comment. I've seen this same advice on 100 websites and 99/100 responses say it doesn't work.
Perhaps this method worked for someone somewhere, but for the average joe, this simply is more a waste of time than any sort of realistic option.
– Added by an anonymous user on Mar 22, 2009 at 4:06 pm
The truth is sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. It would be interesting to learn why. On a previous installation of XP and WMP 11 I tried it and it didn't work, now once again i gave it a shot for the heck of it and it works.
– Added by an anonymous user on May 06, 2009 at 2:06 pm
It doesn't work for me either. I've been to about a dozen sites now and they all say "uncheck overlays" or "turn off video acceleration / move the slider down"... but it still doesn't work. Unchecking overlays in Winamp options worked, but I don't use Winamp for DVDs. I guess I'll try Media Player Classic.
– Added by an anonymous user on Oct 22, 2009 at 2:52 am
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