An application or Windows XP generated an error message and I want to look it up online or forward it to my technical support team for help. I don't understand the error and won't remember it and it has a long string of numbers and letters in it that look important but it's too complicated to remember and would take a long time to write it all down.

 

How can I copy the data quickly so I can paste it in an email or into a Google search box?

 

There are two ways to do this. If you want just the text to be copied, simply click once on the error message to be sure it is the top most window, then hit Ctrl-C on the keyboard. Then start a new email and hit Ctrl-V to paste in the text.

 

If you want to take 'a picture' of the screen which will include everything you see and just the error message text, click the error message window to be sure nothing is covering it and click the Print Screen button on your keyboard. It will appear nothing happened but you will have taken a snapshot of the screen and it will be on the computer clipboard. Open a new email and hit Ctrl-V and the image will be pasted in. Depending on your settings, you might have to save the image first.

 

You can do this by going to StartAll ProgramsAccessoriesPaint then click Ctrl-V and then go to FileSave and name your image. Also before you click OK, change the file type to GIF which will make the file a conveinetly small file size.