Today I needed to capture a screen shot of the Windows 7 UAC prompt for a How-To document I was writing and discovered that you can’t… by default.

Fortunately, there is a registry change that can allow the PrtScn key to work while these prompts are on the screen.

To prevent Windows from switching to Secure Desktop mode when the UAC prompt appears:

1. Click Start
2. Enter regedit in the Search box
3. Navigate to the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesSystem
4. In the right-hand pane, right-click, select New, and then DWORD (32-bit) Value
5. Enter PromptOnSecureDesktop for the new entry’s name
6. Right-click your new entry and click Modify
7. Enter 0 in the Value data box and click OK
8. Close the Registry Editor

You may have to reboot your system for this change to take effect, although I didn’t today.